Bradley Secures Tourney Spot
? By taking 2-of-3 games against defending Missouri Valley Conference champion Evansville, coupled with two Northern Iowa losses at Southern Illinois and three Illinois State losses at home to Creighton, Bradley secured its spot in the six-team MVC Tournament field for a third consecutive season.
? Bradley has not played in three straight league tournaments since a seven-year run from 1990 through 1996.
Only Positioning Remains
? With its final series Thursday-Saturday at UNI, Bradley can finish anywhere from third to fifth in the final Valley standings.
? By owning the tie-breakers against both Evansville and Southern Illinois, Bradley needs at least one win and one Southern Illinois loss (at Indiana State) to secure the No. 3 seed for the MVC Tournament.
? Two wins at UNI will give the Braves the No. 3 seed, regardless of the results from the Southern Illinois-Indiana State series.
Curry Producing Runs
? With five runs scored and three runs batted in during the three-game weekend series against Evansville, hot-hitting Bradley second baseman Ryan Curry contributed to eight runs in the 2-games-to-1 series victory against the Purple Aces.
? For the season Curry leads the Braves in both runs scored (47) and runs batted in (43), and by subtracting his five home runs, he has contributed to 85 runs in just 46 games for the Braves.
? Curry's average of 1.85 runs produced per game tops The Valley.
MVC Runs Produced Per Game Leaders
Player, School R + RBI - HR = RP RP/G
Ryan Curry, BU 47 43 5 85 1.85
Darin Ruff, CU 41 52 7 86 1.76
Kasey Wahl, UE 42 60 8 94 1.74
Chris Gradoville, CU 36 50 4 82 1.67
Mark Kelly, SIU 24 57 2 79 1.58
Curry Closes in on Valley Batting Title
? Bradley senior second baseman Ryan Curry entered last week 21st nationally in hitting with his .414 batting average and he was the only player in The Valley hitting better than .400.
? Curry all but nailed down the league batting title by going 9-for-12 (.750) during the three-game series against Evansville, raising his season average to .436, now seventh nationally and 48 points better than the league's second-leading hitter (SIU catcher Mark Kelly, .388).
? Former first baseman Jon Smith won The Valley's batting title with a .397 average in 2004, the only other time Bradley has produced the league's top hitter since at least 1975.
? Using the league's current criteria of 2.5 at-bats per team game, Bradley has produced just 12 .400 hitters since re-instituting athletics following World War II in 1946 and none since Scott Melvin hit .405 in 1985.
? Curry's current .436 batting average is easily the best by a Brave with at least 100 at-bats.
BU's .400 Hitters Since World War II (2.5 AB/g)
Player, Year Avg. H-AB Games
*Joe Napoli, 1960 .490 27-55 15
Gerald Jacobs, 1952 .477 42-88 22
J.D. Williams, 1962 .445 37-83 22
Bob Koeppel, 1971 .441 38-86 26
RYAN CURRY, 2007 .436 79-181 46
Bob Fidler, 1958 .421 35-63 20
Emil Syngel, 1952 .419 36-86 22
Dave Diesselhorst, 1973 .412 26-63 25
Ed Taylor, 1954 .407 33-81 20
Scott Melvin, 1985 .405 83-203 58
Dave Banko, 1969 .403 27-67 19
Bob Fidler, 1959 .402 39-97 24
*NCAA leader
30-Win Season In Reach
? By winning 14 of its last 16 games, Bradley will enter the final week of the regular season with a 29-17 record.
? With at least five games remaining in their season, the Braves need just one more win to secure their first 30-win season since 1996 when the Braves delivered their third 40-win season (40-22).
Winning Valley Mark
? Aided by its recent nine-game Missouri Valley Conference winning streak, the Braves will finish at least .500 in the league race for the first time since going 13-7 in The Valley in 1993.
2007 MVC Standings
http://www.mvc-sports.com/standings/Standings.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7600&SPID=2904&DEF_FY=2006&DB_OEM_ID=7600&KEY=
