Pitching Matchups
Friday, March 23 | 1 p.m.
Bradley: Joe Bircher (Sr., LHP, 3-0, 2.55 ERA, 35.1 IP, 44 K)
SIU: Cody Forsythe (Jr., LHP, 0-1, 3.81 ERA, 28.1 IP, 23 K)
Saturday, March 24 | 2 p.m.
Bradley: Justin Ziegler (Sr., RHP, 1-1, 7.08 ERA, 20.1 IP, 10 K)
SIU: Cameron Maldonado (Sr., RHP, 2-0, 6.33 ERA, 27.0 IP, 21 K)
Sunday, March 25 | 1 p.m.
Bradley: John Nasshan (Jr., RHP, 2-2, 6.20 ERA, 20.1 IP, 12 K)
SIU: Nathan Dorris (Jr., LHP, 4-1, 4.40 ERA, 28.2 IP, 23 K)
The Storyline
The Missouri Valley Conference season will get underway this weekend when Bradley visits Southern Illinois for a 3-game set at Abe Martin Field ... As one of the two most northern teams in The Valley, Bradley is opening league play on the road for the fifth consecutive year and for the 20th time in the last 24 seasons ... Bradley has won only four of those last 19 league-opening series played on the road and the Braves are just 19-45-1 (.300) overall in their last 19 league-opening series played on the road ... Bradley will be trying to stop its first losing streak of the season, while Southern Illinois will be trying to halt a 4-game skid when the series opens Friday ... The Bradley three pitchers scheduled to start against Southern Illinois this weekend were a combined 2-1 with a 0.37 ERA in 24.1 combined innings against the Salukis last season:
Joe Bircher: 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 7 K
Justin Ziegler: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 K
John Nasshan: 1-1, 0.64 ERA, 14.0 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 4 K
Bircher twirled a 2-hit shutout May 6 in a 9-0 victory at O'Brien Field, while Nasshan blanked the Salukis on four hits in 8.0 innings May 8 before Ziegler closed out the 4-0 win ... The Salukis rebounded wtih five runs, one earned, on seven hits in 6.0 innings against Nasshan in the second round of the MVC Tournament.
Series History vs. Southern Illinois
Southern Illinois leads 76-67-1 | at SIU: Southern Illinois leads 44-29-1
Series records against the Salukis date back to 1952, when the teams split a 2-game series May 30-31 in Carbondale ... The last two series played at Abe Martin Field have resulted in sweeps -- Bradley took all three games in 2008, while the Salukis swept the 2010 series ... The teams split four games last season ... The Braves took 2-of-3 during the regular season for their only MVC series win of the year, but the Salukis eliminated Bradley from the MVC Touranment with a 5-1 win in the second round ... Bradley is 8-8-1 on the road against Southern Illinois since the start of the 2002 season.
For a complete preview of this weekend's Missouri Valley Conference series at Southern Illinois, click the above link to the PDF version of Bradley's Game Notes Package.
