PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley suffered a second consecutive 3-0 shutout loss to visiting Wichita State (45-21, 16-8) to end the regular season, but the Braves (28-20, 10-14) got some help from around the Missouri Valley Conference to qualify for the six-team ConAgra Foods MVC Tournament for the first time since 1999.
Bradley ended the regular-season locked in a 3-way tie for fifth place in the final league standings with Indiana State and Southwest Missouri State. Based on a 4-2 record within the 3-team group, Indiana State earned the tournament's No. 5 seed, while Bradley's 3-3 record versus the Bears and Sycamores earned the Braves the No. 6 seed. Despite winning its last 11 games, including a 6-2 victory Saturday versus Northern Iowa that helped secure Bradley's postseason spot, SMS missed out on the tourney. Bradley secured the tournament's final spot when Evansville scored two runs in the ninth inning, then held on for a 2-1 win at Indiana State to create the three-way tie for fifth. Southwest Missouri State would have won a head-to-head tiebreaker against Bradley if the two teams would have ended up tied for sixth.
Making his final regular-season start, Bradley senior right-hander Brian Spielmann did everything he could to help the Braves secure their postseason spot on their own. Spielmann, who tossed a 2-hit shutout versus Creighton in his only other final Saturday start in 2002, again allowed only two hits and struck out eight. After Nick McCoola singled to lead off the eighth inning, though, Bradley turned to left-handed senior Derek Goins.
Pinch-hitter Brandon Hall greeted Goins with a two-run home run to left field, spoiling Spielmann's outing and ultimately dropping his record to 2-3. Phil Napolitan added a solo homer two batters later to complete Saturday's scoring.
Bradley, which scored eight runs in Friday's 9-8 victory against Shocker All-American Mike Pelfrey, was blanked in consecutive games for the first time since May 9-10, 1997 versus Evansville. Three Shocker pitchers combined on Saturday's shutout. Starter Jereme Foster held the Braves to two hits in the first five innings. Danny Jackson (2-2) allowed three hits in three innings to earn the win, while freshman Damon Sublett worked around a Paul Rice leadoff bunt single in the ninth to secure his ninth save.
Bradley did have two scoring chances, though, but had runners thrown out at the plate in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Justin Carr struck out with one out, but reached first base when the ball got by Shocker catcher Joe Muich. Carr then went to second when Foster threw wildly on a pickoff attempt. Ryan Curry followed with a single back up the middle, but center fielder Blake Hurlbutt got to the ball quickly and fired a one-hopper to Muich to gun down Carr.
In the sixth inning, Ryan Kenny hit a one-out single to right field and went to second on a Rice sacrifice bunt. Brad Canada followed with a sharp single into left field, but Napolitan hit Muich with a laser and the Shocker catcher easily tagged out Kenny to end the inning.
Bradley, which lost all three games at Creighton April 29-May 1, will face the top-seeded Bluejays in the first round of the MVC Tournament Wednesday at Wichita State's Eck Stadium. The game times for Saturday's first-round games still are to be determined by the league office. In the other two games, the host Shockers will be the No. 2 seed and will face No. 5 seed Indiana State. Third-seeded Southern Illinois will take on No. 4 seed Evansville.
