PEORIA, Ill. - With practice set to begin in a little more than two weeks, third-year Bradley Baseball head coach Elvis Dominguez has announced his team will have a quartet of captains for the 2011 season. Junior pitcher Joe Bircher (Omaha, Neb./Roncalli Catholic H.S.), middle infielders Rob Elliott (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley H.S.) and Jason Leblebijian (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect H.S.) and outfielder Mike Tauchman (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd H.S.) were selected captains following a team vote at the end of the fall practice season.
"Being voted team captains by their peers is a tremendous honor for these young men," said Dominguez. "Not only are they great players who possess great work ethic, but this selection also shows that they have leadership qualities and the respect of their fellow teammates."
A 6-foot-4 lefty, Bircher owns an 8-7 record with a 4.67 earned run average in his first two years with the Braves and is the staff's active leader in wins (8), appearances (28), starts (20), innings pitched (144.2) and strikeouts (118) and was the Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week April 12, 2010. In addition to his work for the Braves, Bircher was named a first-team Alaska Baseball League All-Star this summer after going 6-1 with a 1.29 ERA and allowing only 29 hits in 49.0 innings in the summer collegiate league. A psychology major, Bircher has earned a spot on the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll for posting a minimum 3.0 semester grade point average in three of his first five terms.
A fourth-year junior, Elliott is Bradley's most-experienced team member. Playing primarily at third base, he has appeared in 109 games for the Braves, including 105 as a starter, and sports a .286 career batting average with 28 stolen bases. Defensively, he was the winner of the team's Kirby Puckett Gold Glove Award as a freshman in 2008. A marketing major, Elliott has earned a spot on the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll in four of his first seven semesters.
Leblebijian (pronounced LEB - leh - BEE - zhin) was Bradley's primary starting shortstop as a freshman last spring and was the team's fifth-leading hitter with a .323 average in his 47 games, including 44 as a starter. Majoring in secondary education (math), Lebleibijian has earned a spot on the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll in each of the last two semesters.
Tauchman (pronounced TOUCK - man) also enjoyed a stellar freshman season in 2010, batting .285 with five home runs and 10 stolen bases in 10 attempts while starting all 51 games he played. He followed up his strong freshman campaign by earning second-team All-Star honors in the Alaska Baseball League this summer by batting .307 with 20 RBI's for the runner-up Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks. Majoring in business (management and administration), Tauchman has earned a spot on the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll in each of the last two semesters.
Practice for the 2011 season will begin Jan. 28 and the Braves will open their 111th season Feb. 18 by facing Dayton in Nashville, Tenn.
