Bradley broke on top first in Wednesday's nightcap, scoring an unearned run in the first inning.  After Paul Rice was hit by a pitch with one out, Dan Brewer followed with a ground ball up the middle on a hit-and-run play.  Northern Illinois second baseman Jordin Hood was on the move with Rice running, but he booted the ground ball right next to second baseman and Brewer beat out the throw to first by shortstop Bobby Stevens.  Ryan Curry followed with a sharp single to left field to load the bases with one out.  Ryan Eigsti hit a line drive into shallow right field, scoring Rice on a bang-bang play at the plate.

Freshman right-hander Ramie Hamdan (1-0) surrendered a walk to open the game, but Eigsti threw out Daniel Jewett trying to steal second and the Bradley hurler retired the next five Huskies hitters in order.  Aided by a NIU base-running blunder in the third, Hamdan faced the minimum 16 hitters through the first five and one-third innings until giving way to reliever Brad Altbach after allowing a one-out walk and base hit to consecutive hitters in the sixth.  Hamdan earned his first career win by allowing two runs on two hits, with two walks and six strikeouts, in his 5.1 innings.

The Braves had a chance to add a second run in the second after Colby Luttrell drew a leadoff walk and went to second on a Curtis Hornaday sacrifice, but came up empty when Adam Kimble fouled out to first and Brad Jones struck out. 

Bradley came through with the timely hits in the third after it appeared its attempt to rally was thwarted by an interference call at the plate.  After Brewer roped a one-out single to right, he appeared to steal second, but was sent back to first when Curry was called out for interference when swining through the second strike.  Eigsti moved Brewer around to third with a single through the right side and Mike McMillan dropped a soft single over first base to plate Brewer with the game's second run.

The Braves continued to build their lead by plating another run in the fourth.  Designated hitter Adam Kimble drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Brad Jones single to right for a 3-0 Braves lead.

The Braves pushed the lead to 5-0 with two more runs in the fifth thanks to back-to-back, one-out singles by Luttrell and Eigsti.

Bradley's shutout bid was lost two hitters after Hamdan came out when Jeff Thomas dropped a two-out single into left field.  Northern Illinois went on to load the bases against Altbach, then pulled to within 5-4 when Jesse Seykora lobbed a bases-clearing double onto the rightfield line.  After an intentional walk to Scott Simon, Altbach stopped the bleeding by getting Danny Reed to bounce out to second to end the sixth.

The Braves went down in order in the bottom of the sixth, but Altbach turned away the Huskies in order in the seventh to close out the game.