Bradley baseball

[tornado]

Bradley loses today 3-2 to Mercer...the difference was an unearned run in the 1st...
and ironically BU falls to 12-3 exactly what we were at this point last year after 15 games!

Team batting average falls to just .248 - BU was hitting over .280 at this point last season

[BuB]

With 6 more scheduled games ahead of them against non D1 or D2 schools you can look for the non conference record to be even better than last year. Games against Mt. Vernon Nazarene, UMASS-Dartmouth, Robert Morris Springfield Il 2x, Illinois College, and Macmurray all should result in wins for Bradley.

[tornado]

this schedule, seems to be created to shore up baseball and make it look better than it's been -

It'll be good enough (like last year - around .500 overall even if the Valley record isn't so good) that they will use the argument that it shows improvement and thus warrants an extension.

I actually like Elvis and he has a team of good kids - but I am still unconvinced of his coaching skills.

Right now, since the games are spread out, we've been able to use Ashbeck as starter a disproportionate number of times against a weak non-conference slate.
Ashbech has an ERA of 1.99 but the entire rest of our pitching staff has an ERA of 4.79 in all innings not pitched by Ashbeck
When the games start coming closer - then we might have bigger pitching problems than we had envisioned.

[tornado]

Kudos - Bradley baseball wins again - goes to 15-3
Bradley 10 - UMass-Dartmouth 0 (UMass-Dartmouth is Division III, non-scholarship)

[tornado]

Things not going so well tonight....

Bradley trails North Florida 12-3 in the bottom of the 7th inning...but the Ospreys look like they might have yet another rally going with 2 on & nobody out...

Bradley has only four hits and the #1 pitcher in our rotation, Elliott Ashbeck, got hammered -
gave up 10 runs in 4 innings - and Bradley has committed a whopping 7 errors
(2 on catcher, 2 on outfielders, 2 on SS, one on 3B) - plus a passed ball & WP.
...- making 6 of the 11 runs unearned.

North Florida (15-8 ) are a very good team - they have a team BA of nearly .300 and team ERA of only a little over 3.00...
Our BA of .273 and ERA of 3.87 may get tested when we enter MVC play - as both stats are way closer to middle of the pack among MVC teams than the top.

[Old Coach]

The Braves split with North Florida today to move to 16-5 on the season.

[tornado]

Kudos to BU as they take a 5-1 lead over Iowa into the 9th inning

BU has 11 hits to Iowa's 8
BU should move to 17-5
home series starts Friday with SIU who are 3-19 and already are 0-3 in Valley play

[bigjimmy]

BU's 5-2 win over Iowa gave them a school record 17th win before their home opener and Valley opener. Now we'll see if they continue with their winning ways or revert back to form. Even though SIU comes into Peoria struggling they have been one of the traditionally strongest MVC programs so this should be a good test. BU needs to step it up in Valley play as the Braves haven't had double digit victories in the MVC since Dewey Kalmer's last year in the 07-08 season. We also haven't beaten Wichita in our last 19 games and we haven't finished above .500 since the 06-07 season. If Elvis wants to stay around those figures need to turn around. Hopefully this weekend will be a good start.

[tornado]

Bradley ran into a tremendous pitching effort from SIU's starter Aaron Hauge..
who went the distance, striking out 13 hitters, giving up just one run..but..

but Bradley still won because Elliott Ashbeck pitched a 9 inning shutout - likewise giving up just 5 hits, striking out 9.

Bradley is 18-5

[tornado]

Bradley goes to 18-5 with a 10-0 win today
..keep it rolling!

[Old Coach]

Bradley goes to 18-5 with a 10-0 win today
..keep it rolling!

I think they're actually 19-5 overall.

[tornado]

Bradley loses today to SIU 5-3
BU goes to 19-6

Reliever Stephen Toma got stung with the loss when things unraveled in the 8th inning...
a walk, a hit-by-pitch, an error and a couple wild pitches allowed SIU to put 3 runs on the board with just one hit, and that was pretty much the game...

[tornado]

Bradley pitcher wins weekly honor

https://twitter.com/MVCsports/status/582643057893326848

[tornado]

Bradley is up 5-1 in the 8th over Illinois College..whose leadoff hitter is Joe Dalfonso's kid Nick..

http://www.illinoiscollegeathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=2136&path=baseball

[Da Coach]

Former Bradley star pitcher Rob Scahill, who pitched the last 3 seasons for the Colorado Rockies, makes the Pittsburgh Pirates opening day roster-

http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasybaseball/update/25136860/pirates-recall-rob-scahill-from-triple-a-earns-roster-spot