Receiving their first doubleheader action of the season following back-to-back rainouts, Bradley baseball split the Sunday twinbill with Arkansas-Little Rock (4-2) thanks to a 10-run inning in extras.
“We had plenty of opportunities throughout the game, we just couldn’t knock down the door,” Bradley head coach Elvis Dominguez said. “Sunday [was] the ballclub I had envisioned offensively.”
When the Braves (2-3) headed to Arkansas for the three-game series that was expected to run Friday through Sunday, the plan was to even their season record. Rainfall on Thursday through Saturday drenched Gary Hogan Field and forced a Sunday doubleheader.
Finally able to return to the diamond, both Bradley and Little Rock had to dig deep for offense in Sunday’s opener. The Trojans scratched the surface with two runs in the final two frames for the 2-0 win.
Bradley out-hit Arkansas-Little Rock 5-4 but left six men on base, as opposed to the home team’s four. Braves sophomore pitcher Jacob Kisting was much stronger in his second start of the season, despite it being pushed back two days.
“As long as I stick to my plan, it’s the same game we would play all our lives,” Kisting said. “The less you can get caught up in superstition and more about in routine, I think it’s gonna benefit you in the long run.”
“He was exceptional,” Dominguez said. “He was tremendous through seven innings of one run ball, and that’s what he’s capable of doing. I was hoping to give him a little cushion because if you give him a one [or] two run lead, it’s over.”
Kisting threw seven innings and allowed just two hits while walking two and striking out six. His only mistake came in his final inning when Trojan sophomore Nico Baumbach launched a solo shot to left field for the go-ahead run.
In the following inning, a 1-2 count on Little Rock’s Alex Seguine turned into an RBI double to push the lead to 2-0. Bradley senior Connor Manthey drew a walk in the top of the ninth, but the Braves went down in order to seal their fate.
Getting shutout twice in five games didn’t sit well with Dominguez, forcing him to speak with the group before the quick turnaround.
“To be shut out twice already in the season, that’s not acceptable and it’s not who we are,” Dominguez said. “We had a little chat between games and they responded really well because they came out right off the bat and did what they’re capable of doing.”
“It kind of kicked us in the butt a bit,” junior TJ Manteufel said on Dominguez’s message between games.
The Braves found their first lead in game two when Manteufel’s deep shot cleared the left field fence and sent in three runs home in the second inning. The shortstop’s long ball was a sign of more to come from both offenses.
Bradley sophomore Travis Lutz struggled on the mound, amassing a large inning in the third during which the Trojans scored five runs by batting through the order. Lutz hit the next two batters after giving up a single to begin the inning. With the bases loaded, Little Rock used three singles along with a two-out double to put the home team in front 6-3.
Storming back in the fourth, the Braves responded with five runs of their own to retake the lead. After the first three batters for Bradley reached base, senior Connor O’Brien watched as he skied one towards center field for a go-ahead grand slam. A fielding error gifted the Braves another run and they jumped out to an 8-6 lead.
With both teams knotted up at eight entering the last frame, Bradley capitalized in the top half of the inning. Manteufel tripled in junior Jackson Chatterton after the latter began the inning with a free pass to first. Manteufel’s three-bagger kept him a double shy of hitting for the cycle.
Up 9-8, Dominguez opted to keep redshirt-freshman Noah Edders on the bump after pitching for the last two innings. Edders retired the first batter but allowed the game-tying homer to Baumbach to push the game to extras.
Batted tested through the first nine innings, Bradley broke out in the tenth. Junior Carson Husmann got things started for the Braves when his triple with one out brought home Manthey. Husmann scored on a bunt from Chatterton.
Now with an 11-9 lead, the gas pedal continued to be floored. Manteufel wouldn’t get his cycle-needing double, but reached on an error that sent Chatterton home. Bradley would score seven more runs and swell the lead further. After holding the Trojans silent in their frame, the Braves came away with a 19-9 victory.
“I didn’t really realize it until the very end, but yeah [the cycle] went across my mind,” Manteufel said. “I actually told [Ryan] Vogel when they switched pitchers and I got to first ‘Oh man, I was only a double away’. I was joking with Jackson Chatterton, who got thrown out at third to end the inning, like ‘Man, [you] could have got me one more at bat.”
Bradley looks to continue the offensive firepower in their next trip down south. Facing Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Alabama, Bradley has the opportunity to jump above .500 for the first time this season. The first pitch against the Gamecocks is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m.
“Jacksonville State is a great, great, great program,” Dominguez said. “Their midweek [includes games with] Auburn, Alabama, Georgia and so on. They’re a very good ballclub so I think we got our hands full, but that’s what you play for.”
