PEORIA, Ill. --  Bradley will open its 106th baseball season this weekend when the Braves travel to Clarksville, Tenn. for a trio of games versus Birmingham Southern and Austin Peay.  The Braves, 28-22 a year ago, will play a split doubleheader Saturday by facing Birmingham Southern at 11 a.m. and the host Governors at 2:30 p.m. at Raymond C. Hand Park.  Bradley will conclude its opening weekend of play with a single game Sunday afternoon versus Austin Peay.

Both Birmingham Southern and Austin Peay will open their seasons Friday night by facing each other at Raymond C. Hand Park.

Beginning his 27th season as head coach, Dewey Kalmer welcomes back 13 lettermen, including six starting position players and four pitchers, from last year's squad that finished 28-22 overall and qualified for the six-team ConAgra Foods Missouri Valley Conference Tournament with a 10-14 league record.

The 2006 Braves are expected to be led by starting pitchers Collin Walker and Brandon Magee, as well as third baseman Paul Rice.  Walker and Rice both earned first-team All-MVC honors last season and were voted to the 2006 preseason all-conference squad. 

A 6-foot-7 senior, Walker posted the league's fifth-best earned run average in 2005 (2.70) and has chance to crack Bradley's all-time top 10 in appearances, starts, complete games, strikeouts and wins.  Magee earned honorable mention All-MVC honors last spring after leading the Braves with seven wins, 78 strikeouts and 103 2/3 innings pitched.  Rice brings the Valley's third-best batting average (.357) back to the middle of the Bradley lineup after posting career-best figures in 2005 in hitting, runs batted in (24) and runs (36), while also swiping 20 bases in 25 attempts.

Bradley will play its first 17 games away from Peoria before opening the home slate March 21 with a single game at O'Brien Field versus MacMurray College.