ST. LOUIS -- Seven members of the Bradley Baseball team earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors in a league-wide vote of head coaches released by the conference office this morning. Senior second baseman Ryan Curry (Downers Grove, Ill./South H.S.) was the only first-team selection among the Braves and relief pitcher Brad Altbach (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North H.S.) was voted the 2007 MVC Freshman of the Year in addition to his honorable mention all-league honors.
In addition to the two top honors, sophomore shortstop Dan Brewer (Brookfield, Ill./Lyons Township H.S.) and senior starting pitcher Michael Christl (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley H.S.) both landed on the All-MVC second team, while senior third baseman Paul Rice (Beardstown, Ill./Beardstown H.S.), junior catcher Ryan Eigsti (Eureka, Ill./Eureka H.S.) and senior outfielder Justin Carr (Camargo, Ill./Villa Grove H.S.) all joined Altbach among the honorable mention selections.
2007 All-MVC Baseball Team Release
Curry was in the running to become just the second player (Mike Dunne, 1984) in school history to be named the Joe Carter MVC Player of the Year, but he lost out to Creighton first baseman Darin Ruf. Curry's .428 season batting average was 44 points better than second place Mark Kelly (.384) of Southern Illinois and 51 points ahead of Ruf (.377) and Curry was the only player in The Valley to hit .400 in league play. In addition, Curry led the league in runs produced per game during the regular season, accounting for 1.78 runs scored and driven in during his 49 games played (Ruf and his Creighton teammate Chris Gradoville tied for third with 1.64 runs produced per game). While Bradley tied for third in the league standings, however, Ruf helped the second-place Bluejays remain in the chase for the conference title to the season's last day and led the league with 29 runs batted in during the 24 conference games.
As a consolation, Curry beat out Wichita State star Damon Sublett, who was the only active player named to the league's All-Centennial Team Sunday night, for the nod as the league's first-team second baseman. Just the second Brave to lead the league in hitting since 1975, Curry is only the third player in school history to be named The Valley's first-team second baseman, following Dave Banko in 1969 and Scott Melvin in 1984.
The Valley first began recognizing a Freshman of the Year in 1994 when Bradley ace Doug Robertson won the inaugural award. Altbach becomes the second Brave to be selected Freshman of the Year. The 6-foot-2 right-hander leads the Bradley staff with 20 appearances, six wins, a school season-record-tying five saves and a 2.73 earned run average. He was particularly impressive during league play, going 3-0 with five saves and a 1.98 ERA in his 12 appearances. At one point, Altbach closed out five consecutive conference games during Bradley's nine-game Valley winning streak, including all three games of the sweep of rival Illinois State at O'Brien Field.
An honorable mention selection as a freshman second baseman last spring, Brewer was voted the league's second-team shortstop in 2007 after batting .307 with 27 runs batted in and leading the team with eight home runs and 20 stolen bases. The midseason lineup switch that moved Brewer from the third spot to the leadoff position triggered Bradley's hot finish as the Braves won 15 of the final 19 games following the shift.
Another factor in Bradley's hot finish was the improved performance of the pitching staff, led by Christl. The only senior member of the Bradley staff, Christl finished 5-6 with a 5.31 ERA during the regular season, but his numbers were vastly improved in conference action. Including a four-game winning streak as the opening-game starter for Bradley's league weekends, Christl went 4-4 with a 3.43 ERA and a .226 opponent batting average in his eight Valley starts.
Rice, who was the first-team All-MVC third baseman in 2005 but missed the final third of the 2006 season with a torn ACL, bounced back to earn honorable mention at the hot corner in his senior season. Rice hit .290 during the regular season and has climbed to sixth on the school's all-time hits list with 215.
Already considered one of the league's top defensive catchers, Eigsti's improved offensive production in 2007 helped him earn honorable mention status. The strong-armed Bradley backstop threw out 16 of 45 runners trying to steal against the Braves, while picking off four others, and prevented further running just by the threat of his arm. He also has enjoyed a career-year at the plate, batting .302 with 33 runs bated in.
Like Rice, Carr bounced back from an injury to enjoy a stellar season for the Braves. A junior college transfer, the left-handed Carr hit .292 in 2005 by batting almost exclusively against right-handed pitching, then redshirted the 2006 season after suffering a broken bone in his hand three games into the season. He came back strong in his senior season, finishing second on the team with a .352 battting average, 34 runs batted in and five home runs as the everyday left fielder. Carr was The Valley's ninth-leading hitter during the regular season and ranked third among the league's outfielders with his .352 average.
Led by Bradley's seven award winners, the Braves (30-19, 13-11) enter the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as the third seed and will face defending champion Evansville (34-21, 13-11) in Wednesday's 3 p.m. game at Hammons Field in Springfield, Mo. The Bradley-Evansville winner will play in Thursday's 7 p.m. game, while the loser will face elimination in Thursday's 3 p.m. contest.
Bradley had not won as many as 30 games in a season since 1996 (40-22) and had not finished as high as third in the league standings since 1993. The Braves took the first two games of the series against Evansville May 11-12 at O'Brien Field to extend its conference winning streak to a program-best nine games, but Bradley dropped the series finale and will enter the tournament having lost three of its last four games. Last year, Evansville swept Bradley in the final weekend to win The Valley regular-season title, but the Braves bounced back for a 6-3 victory against the Purple Aces in the tournament's opening game.
