CARBONDALE, Ill. ? Bradley's pitchers overcame a record-setting day of wildness and the Braves offense came through with sacrifice flies to plate the tying run in the eighth and the go-ahead score in the ninth en route to a 4-3 Missouri Valley Conference baseball victory versus Southern Illinois Saturday afternoon at Abe Martin Field.  Bradley improves to 15-15 overall, 6-5 in The Valley, while Southern Illinois falls to 18-14 and 3-5 in league play.

In addition to surrendering nine hits, four Bradley pitchers combined to walk a school-record 14 opposing hitters.  The old record of 13 originally was set  April 2, 1934 in a 9-3 home loss to Iowa and matched April 14, 1941 during a 13-12 loss at Vanderbilt.  Southern Illinois, which scored all three of its runs in the fourth inning, left runners on base in each of the nine innings and finished the game 4-for-20 with runners in scoring position, stranding 21 runners all together.  The 21 runners left on base was just two shy of the NCAA Division I record for a 9-inning game, set by Arizona versus Chapman on March 19, 1979.

Junior closer Kori Jensen worked out of the last jam, a bases-loaded situation in the ninth, to earn his fifth save of the year, tying the single-season school record a little more than halfway into the season.  The school mark was originally set by Michael Christl in 2005 and equaled by Brad Altbach last year.  Junior right-hander Bryan Porter (1-0) pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless relief to earn his second career victory and his first career win against a Division I opponent.

Bradley took advantage of the first of three Southern Illinois errors to grab a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning.  Nick Mitidiero opened the game with a ground ball to second base, but was safe on Scott Elmendorf's throwing error.  Mitidiero advanced to second on Grant Escue's sacrifice bunt, then took third on a passed ball during a walk to Dan Brewer.  Junior right fielder Colby Luttrell, who hit a 3-run homer in the 10th inning of Friday's game, drove home Mitidiero with a single to right.

The tone of the game was set in the bottom of the first when Bradley starter Collin Brennan, who was suffering from tightness in his back, walked the first two hitters before retiring then next two Salukis on fly balls.  After issuing a third walk to load the bases, Brennan got Dean Cademartori to foul out escape the inning unscathed.  A laboring Brennan worked around another leadoff walk in the second, then gave way to Jon Goebel after surrendering a fifth walk to put runners at first and second with one out in the third inning.

Goebel enjoyed early success by getting Cademartori to fly out and Elmendorf to hit into a fielder's choice to end the third.

With Bradley leading 2-0, however, Goebel could not escape trouble in the fourth.  Owen Mackendon started the rally with a one-out single and Chris Murphy walked to put runners at first and second.  Bret Maugeri and Adam Hills followed with run-scoring singles to forge a 2-2 tie and Mark Kelly added a third straight single to load the bases.  Goebel fanned Tyler Bullock for the second out, but walked Cademartori to give the Salukis a 3-2 lead before getting Elmendorf to fly out to end the frame.

After surrendering Bradley's first two runs on three hits and three walks through the first four innings, SIU starter Shawn Joy settled down once given the lead and retired nine of 10 hitters in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings (an error gave Bradley its only base runner in those three innings). 

While Joy was cruising through the Bradley lineup, Bradley's pitchers continued to work in and out of trouble.  Goebel worked around a one-out single in the fifth, then gave way to Porter with one out in the sixth after walking a pair of Salukis.  Porter retired Cademartori and Bullock on a fly out and fielder's choice grounder, respectively.  Having surrendered a pair of singles and an intentional walk in the seventh, Porter escaped the bases-loaded situation by getting Kelly to ground out to end the inning with the Braves still trailing 3-2.

Bradley finally broke through for the tying run in the eighth.  Brewer and Luttrell started the rally with consecutive one-out singles to put runners at the corners and Andrew Eggers, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the sixth, drove a fly ball to center field to bring home Brewer.

Southern Illinois threatened to reclaim the lead in the home half of the eighth by putting runners at first and second with one out on a pair of Porter free passes.  Porter again escaped, however, by getting pinch-hitter Tyler Choate to pop out and Mackendon to fly out.

Daniel Wells (2-1) replaced Joy to start the ninth and Bradley shortstop Tommy Fitzgerald greeted the new Saluki hurler with a leadoff single.  Brett Hendricks moved Fitzgerald to second with a sacrifice and Mitidiero followed with a single to put runners at the corners with only one out.  Escue, who drove home the winning run in Sunday's 12-inning victory versus Creighton, again came through with a sacrifice fly to give the Braves the 4-3 lead.

Jensen took over for Porter to start the ninth and got Murphy to pop out to open the frame before things again got interesting.  Maugeri legged out an infield single and advanced into scoring position when Hills grounded out to first.  The Braves then made the bold move of putting the potential winning run on base by intentionally walking Kelly.  The situation became more dangerous when Jensen loaded the bases by giving up another walk to pinch-hitter Chris Crank.  Cademartori grounded out to short, however, to end the game.  The combination of Cademartori (6) and Elmendorf (7) combined to strand 13 of SIU's 21 runners left on base.

Bradley has won each of its last three Valley games by scoring in its final at bat.  On the heels of Friday's 7-3 win in 10 innings, Bradley has claimed the first two games of the series against the Salukis and will go for the sweep in Suday's 1 p.m. finale.