Bradley baseball (8-15) had a spoiled home opener on Wednesday, dropping an extra-inning affair against the Iowa Hawkeyes, 9-8.
The Braves’ first home game was its latest since 1983 and fans were treated to a four-hour and 37-minute affair at Dozer Park that included 15 pitching changes and a gusty wind blowing out towards right field.
Bradley scheduled a bullpen game, with no pitcher getting more than three innings of work. Walks continued to plague the staff, as 12 free passes were given out on the mound, with seven of the leadoff variety. In fact, six of the seven innings that led off with walks were innings where the Hawkeyes scored.
“We got to give ourselves a chance on the mound for us to be competitive,” head coach Elvis Dominguez said. “Maybe we’re not doing a very good job of coaching them, but we’ve got to pitch better.”
In addition, six wild pitches and a season-high four errors in the field did not make Dominguez happy.
“It’s getting very repetitive, but it’s very frustrating as well,” Dominguez said. “We just cannot continue to do this.”
Senior catcher Keaton Rice got Bradley on the board early, singling home junior first baseman Connor O’Brien in the first inning to start off his two-for-four night. Rice also drew a walk, moving him into a tie for third place in free passes drawn in program history.
Despite Iowa (15-10) only giving up eight runs in the second inning all year, Bradley crushed the Hawkeyes for five runs in the frame off the back of a Ryan Vogel grand slam, the first of his career. The sophomore center fielder got a first-pitch slider and hammered it to left field to give the Braves a 6-3 lead.
“I was looking slider all the way,” Vogel said. “I had watched the previous at-bats and he threw it right in my wheelhouse and I put the best short swing I could on it.”
Iowa took over after that, scoring four unanswered to take the lead, before two sacrifices and a wild pitch brought O’Brien home after his single in the ninth. The Hawkeyes would then use more Bradley pitching mistakes, as well as two bunt singles, in the 10th to retake an 8-7 lead.
That was until sophomore catcher Logan Delgado collected his first hit of the season with an RBI single to left field in the bottom of the inning.
The back-and-forth battle fell short on the Braves in the 11th, as another leadoff walk and a sacrifice fly — Iowa’s third in three innings — was the nail in the metaphorical coffin.
“This should have been wrapped up and our game, but we let this one slip away,” Vogel said. “I think we got a little bit too comfortable at times, started posting and never really put the dagger in.”
The Hawkeyes came into the game with a .186 opponent’s batting average and faced a Bradley squad with a top-30 ranked offense in the country at a .299 tilt. The Braves got the better of the Hawkeyes in that department, but Iowa’s small-ball and mistakes from Bradley led the visitors to the win.
Dominguez said he tried to put the guys in the best position he could but believes it’s on the team to get it done from there.
“It’s their club and they gotta figure some stuff out,” Dominguez said.
The Braves will remain at home for a three-game series against Wright State this weekend, starting with a doubleheader on Saturday at noon.
