CHICAGO -- Bradley (24-11) scored a pair of unearned runs in the 10th inning to pull out a 5-3 non-conference baseball victory versus Illinois-Chicago (21-15-1) Wednesday night at Les Miller Field.
Senior shortstop Adam Uscicki opened the 10th inning with his second hit of the game. After advancing to second on a Ryan Eigsti sacrifice bunt, Uscicki came around to score when Flames shortstop Mike Bruszer threw wild to first on a Johnny Sage ground ball. Sage then took two bases when UIC reliever Jason Foster (5-6) also threw wild to first on a pick off attempt and scored on a Foster wild pitch.
Sophomore reliever Michael Christl continued his stellar work out of the bullpen and earned the victory in relief of starter Brian Spielmann. Christl (4-1) tossed two innings of hitless ball with two strikeouts. Wednesday's outing was Christl's fourth relief appearance since April 19 and he has turned those four appearances into two wins and two saves. Spielmann turned in a strong starting effort, scattering seven hits and striking out eight in his 8.0 innings, but he wound up with a no decision after the Flames pulled even on Mark Hallberg run-scoring single with two outs in the eighth.
Bradley scored once in each of the first three innings to take an early 3-0 lead. Sophomore third baseman Paul Rice, who entered the week as the leading hitter in the Missouri Valley Conference, hit his second home run of the season in the first inning to highlight his 2-for-5 performance. Uscicki followed a Jason Newburger double in the second inning with one of his own to plate the second run, and sophomore second baseman Ryan Curry hit his first home run of the year in the third inning to complete the early scoring.
The Flames got two runs back on three hits in the fifth inning. Bart Babineaux started the rally with a one-out double, then scored on a Bryan Nolte single. After Shane Crowder singled to put runners on the corners, Nolte scored on a ground out by Jeff Gremley.
The Braves, who improved to 14-6 in non-conference action this season, will return to Valley play this weekend by visiting league-leading Creighton (32-10, 11-4) for a 3-game series. The series will begin with a 3 p.m. contest Friday at the Creighton Sports Complex.
