PEORIA, Ill. ? Pitching continued to dominate this weekend's Missouri Valley Conference baseball series between Bradley and Southern Illinois and the visiting Salukis (19-25, 7-9 MVC) took advantage of an 11th-inning error to pull out a 4-2 victory Saturday night at O'Brien Field.  On the heels of Friday's 1-0, walk-off victory by the Braves (15-26, 2-12 MVC), the series is tied 1-1 heading into Sunday's 1 p.m. rubber match at O'Brien Field.

Southern Illinois designated hitter Tyler Bullock was the hitting star Saturday, going 3-for-4 with a double, a home run and the game-winning hit in the 11th.  Salukis junior closer Bryant George (3-0) blanked the Braves for 3.2 innings to earn the win in his longest career outing.  SIU lefthander Jimmy Cornell allowed only three Bradley hits and did not allow a run until the seventh inning.  Bradley freshman righty Joe Bircher was nearly equal to the challenge, allowing just two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts in 8.0 innings.

After setting the O'Brien Field college record for assists in a game Friday night, Bradley shortstop Tommy Fitzgerald opened the door for the Salukis in the 11th by committing a throwing error on an Aaron Roberts leadoff grounder.  Roberts then stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a Bullock line drive single to right.  Chase Sanford pinch ran for Bullock and went to second on a Jordan Sivertsen sacrifice and Murphy worked a walk from Bradley reliever Brad Altbach (1-6) to put runners at first and second with two outs.  Scott Elmendorff gave the Salukis some insurance with another line drive single to right.

The Salukis put their leadoff man on base in each of the first four innings, but did not take advantage until the third after Tony Lepore drew a walk and Chris Murphy followed with a single to right field for SIU's first hit of the game.  After a failed sacrifice attempt resulted in the first out, catcher Mark Kelly hit a ball off the rightfield wall for a long RBI single to give the Salukis a 1-0 lead.  Michael Stalter followed with a sharp single to left to load the bases with one out.  Bircher limited the damage, however, by fanning Chris Serritella and getting Roberts to fly out to end the threat.

After giving up a leadoff double to Bullock in the fourth, Bircher retired eight straight until facing Bullock again.  The Saluki designated hitter snapped the streak by launching an opposite field, solo home run to left field, his seventh homer of the year, for a 2-0 Southern Illinois lead.

Limited to one hit through the first six innings, Bradley trimmed its deficit in the seventh after Adam Kimble dumped a leadoff double into the rightfield corner.  Colby Luttrell lined out, but designated hitter Phil Kaiser lined a single to left field to put runners at the corners with one out.  Brett Hendricks put the Braves on the board by lifting a sacrifice fly to centerfield.

David Kington, who gave up Nick Mitidiero's walk-off home run Friday night, nearly repeated his performance Saturday when he relieved Cornell in the eighth.  Fitzgerald just missed a tying home run by hitting a flyball high off the wall in right field for a one-out triple.  George, Southern Illinois' all-time saves leader, replaced Kington, but served up a game-tying sacrifice fly to Grant Escue.  George was 6-for-6 in save opportunities this season before giving up Escue's tying sacrifice fly.  He recovered, however, by working around singles in the ninth and 10th innings, then closed out the game with a perfect 11th.

The series will conclude with a 1 p.m. game Sunday at O'Brien Field.  Freshman right-hander Justin Ziegler (1-1) will get the starting nod on the mound for the Braves and is expected to square off against SIU senior righty Andrew Dunn (5-4).