Bradley baseball had some of their biggest competition this season against Missouri Valley Conference leaders Southern Illinois and Big 10 foe Iowa. The weather didn’t play nice either as they fought through wind, rain and threats of tornadoes.
The Braves (10-14, 3-3 MVC) played their first series at home against the Salukis (17-13, 6-1) and despite Southern Illinois being heavily favored over Bradley in the preseason polls, BU was able to take one of the three games played at Dozer Park over the weekend.
“It was an eventful weekend for everybody,” Braves’ head coach Elvis Dominguez said. “In 48 hours, we got all four seasons, there was a lot of adversity to deal with.”
After the Friday contest was pushed forward to try to beat the rain, the game was inevitably postponed with the remaining inning and a half played before their Saturday match-up. While the first two games were tightly contested, the Sunday game was a much different story.
“It was tough to lose the way we did Sunday. I thought we did a good job at competing the first two games, obviously we ended up losing the series,” senior catcher Connor Manthey said.
There wouldn’t be much time to rest about what happened on Sunday as the Braves had a midweek Big 10 matchup against borderline top-25 Iowa.
Dominguez wanted to see an improvement on the mound against the Hawkeyes and the Braves did against some of the best hitters in the country. The Bradley bullpen struck out seven Hawkeyes and only allowed one more hit than the visitors did.
Hawkeye Sam Hojner separated Iowa from Bradley in the top of the fifth with a three RBI homer. It wouldn’t be a quiet night for the second basemen as he registered three hits, two runs and drove in four runs.
Vogal was the Braves’ most productive batter as he ended the game with three hits and four runs, while junior Logan Delgado provided some extra firepower with a homer in the bottom of the ninth. Unable to put up more runs on the board, the Braves fell 9-6 to the Hawkeyes.
Rain, thunder and lightning
As dark clouds circled the Peoria area for Friday’s matchup against the Salukis, Bradley sophomore pitcher Jacob Kisting took the mound against some of the best in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Both teams loaded the bases early in the game, but nothing would result from it. After three scoreless innings, the Salukis struck first after a hit by pitch and two singles sent Steven Loden home in the top of the fourth.
“The first game was a very well played game between two good ball clubs,” Dominguez said. “We just couldn’t get it down on the mound and I’m hoping for somebody to step up and give us some stability.”
While the Braves struggled to get some runs on the board, the Salukis were consistently putting up single runs for two more innings. Just as the wind started to pick up in the sixth inning, Bradley responded to the Salukis’ consistency by mustering up two runs. Senior leader Conor O’Brien scored after he singled to left field and junior Carson Husmann drove him home for the first run for the Braves.
After getting walked, Delgado passed home plate for the Braves’ second run of the game, bringing the game within one. Heading into the eighth inning, lighting cracked the sky and the tornado sirens rang out as the Salukis extended their lead by one before the game was suspended and everyone headed for the dugouts.
Back on level terms
The Salukis secured the win the next day by scoring five runs in the leftover innings. Down by seven runs in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, O’Brien sent one out of the park for three runs.
“We knew in the last two innings we would have to score quick,” Manthey said. “[O’Brien’s homer] definitely gave us some momentum, it was good to see him do that.”
Using this momentum, the Braves put out their best performance of the series. With some of their best pitching, Bradley was able to develop a good lead early on.
“We knew we were going to have to swing it with them, they are a pretty good offensive team,” Manthey said. “Our bats came ready for Saturday.”
While the Salukis drew blood first, a four-run second inning for the Braves was just what they needed to make Southern Illinois uncomfortable. O’Brien kept that momentum from the stray innings played prior with another three run homer, making the score 4-1.
After Southern Illinois got the game within one and filled up the plate in the fifth with no outs, the Braves called on sophomore Jacob Norris to minimize the damage. A wild pitch and a single to right field advanced three runners bringing the game within one.
“The second game was phenomenal the way we bounced back,” Dominguez said. “We had that momentum and all of a sudden we got a big lead and just tried to hold that.”
A pitching duel rang out for the rest of the game as Norris struck out three Salukis, only giving up a single hit in his four innings of work. Saluki relief pitcher Jordan Bloemer also had a quiet day on the mound, not wasting any time in his three innings of work.
In the Braves last inning, graduate Connor Langrell came in to close out the game for the Braves. After a couple of wild pitches and a couple of walks, Langrell found himself with a full house surrounded by Salukis. The Bradley infielders would take care of the rest of the game much to the relief of Langrell.
Back to the drawing board
In the rubber game of the series, the Salukis took advantage of Bradley’s difficulty in finding the strike zone, taking the third game 16-4 after seven innings. While Southern Illinois was able to score in their first five innings, it took Bradley until their last inning to put any points on the board.
“They [Southern Illinois pitchers] did a good job mixing speeds,” Manthey said. “But other than that it was more about getting the pitch to drive and not swing at the pitches that they wanted you to.”
The Braves headed into the fifth inning with just one hit, down by seven, and on their third pitcher. It was a long half inning for the Braves as the Salukis put up nine runs, stealing several bags and taking advantage of a couple of errors from Bradley. Another homer from Boucher allowed the Salukis to make the game 11-0.
“The third game we just couldn’t find the strike zone to save our life,” Dominguez said. “You can’t do that against good teams and we didn’t play well enough to our capabilities and from that aspect I was disappointed.”
Heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, Bradley earned some consolation runs in their final inning after being down by more than 10 runs heading into the seventh. Still, the Bradley faithful cheered on their Braves as they got out of the inning 16-0. Vogel doubled to left field for two runs.
The Braves ended up losing the match-up 16-4, surely making it one of the harder games to sit down and watch film for this season.
“I told the guys we have to take this ownership and we have to take this personal because those are your numbers and the numbers define who you are,” Dominguez said.
Moving forward
Bradley baseball will be on the road again, this time landing in Springfield, Missouri, to face the Missouri State Bears. The Bears come into the match-up 13-13 (2-4 MVC) and will face the Braves in an early morning game today at Hammons Field.
After being ranked 17th nationally in home runs and slugging percentage last season, the Bears have homered in their first 11 games this season, extending their streak of 29 consecutive games sending balls out of the park.
“We don’t practice throwing balls, we practice throwing strikes, so is it a matter of too much expectation? Too much pressure? That’s the part we’re kind of trying to figure out and we’ll address that again,” Dominguez said.
