THE STORYLINE
Bradley will play just its second home game of the season Wednesday when the Braves host Illinois at O'Brien Field ... Illinois is making the Interstate 74 circuit this week and is coming off a 16-7 loss Tuesday night at Illinois State, where the Illini surrendered 16 unanswered runs after taking a 7-0 lead in the top of the third ... Wednesday's game once again will mark the reunion of several players from both teams, including five players from Illinois Valley Central H.S. in Chillicothe: Bradley's Cody Kentzel and Derek Sprout and Illinois' Jordan Parr, Justin Parr and Drasen Johnson ... In addition to the IVC quintet, Bradley second baseman Rob Elliott and Illinois catcher Alex Lincoln both are from Naperville Neuqua Valley H.S., while Bradley pitcher Danny Gifford and Illinois catcher Brent Kuper both hail from Highland (Ill.) H.S ... Bradley earned a 7-4 win against the Illini April 5, 2011 at O'Brien Field to improve to 18-8 on the season, but the Braves won only four of their remaining 28 games and finished the 2011 campaign with a 22-32 record.
SERIES HISTORY VS. ILLINOIS
Illinois leads 40-19-1 | Home: Illinois leads 14-12 | Current Streak: Bradley W1
With series records dating back to 1927, Illinois owns a 40-19-1 record against the Braves ... Since 1996, however, Bradley owns an 8-5 record against the Illini, including a 3-1 record at O'Brien Field ... Bradley won last year's lone meeting, 7-4, April 6, 2011 at O'Brien Field.
ROAD WARRIORS
Bradley played its first 17 games away from home and the Braves are scheduled to play just 16 of their 52 regular-season games at O'Brien Field ... With its first two home games scheduled for mid-week contests against Illinois-Chicago (last Wednesday) and Illinois (Wednesday), Bradley will not play a weekend home game until hosting Missouri State April 6-8 ... The 2012 Braves are 5-3 in true road games, already surpassing their 2011 road victory total (4-15), and Bradley is 11-8-1 overall away from home ... The 16 scheduled home games are Bradley's fewest since the Braves recorded a 9-7 home record in 1997.
LIVING IN LAND OF LINCOLN
Bradley is in the middle of a 9-game stretch against in-state rivals ... Since the Braves earned a 7-4 win against Illinois April 5, 2011 at O'Brien Field, Bradley is 3-13 against teams from the state of Illinois ... The Braves snapped a 5-game losing streak to teams from the Land of Lincoln with Sunday's 8-4 win at Southern Illinois ... Bradley will visit Western Illinois for a 3-game series this weekend, then will visit the Illini Tuesday, before hosting Missouri State April 6-8 to end the in-state streak.
MERRY MARCH
Bradley enters Wednesday's game versus Illinois with an 8-6-1 (.567) March record this season ... Bradley enjoyed an 11-4 (.733) record last March, giving the Braves a combined 19-10-1 (.650) record the last two Marches.
STARTERS STRUGGLING
Bradley has struggled to get many "quality starts" from its pitching staff so far this season ... Defined is at least six innings permitting no more than three earned runs, Bradley has recorded just six "quality starts" through the season's first 21 games ... Senior left-hander Joe Bircher (4) and junior right-hander John Nasshan (2) are the only Braves to record "quality starts" this season and the staff has gone six straight games without a "quality start. ... To date, the starters have combined for a 6-7 record with a 5.31 ERA and .296 opponent batting average in the first 21 games.
BULLPEN STEPS UP
While the starters have struggled early on, the Bradley bullpen has excelled through the season's first 21 games ... Ten Bradley pitches have combined for a 5-2 record and five saves out of the bullpen with a collective 3.27 ERA and .260 opponent batting average ... As relievers, eight Bradley pitchers sport earned run averages of 4.50 or better, 0.81 below the starters' combined ERA.
LATE-INNING TRIO
A trio of right-handers have developed into a late-game door-closer for the Braves ... Junior Rob Kennedy has emerged as a middle innings stopper, followed by setup man Jacob Booden and closer Danny Gifford ... Kennedy had appeared in just five games in his first two seasons, going 0-2 with a 12.38 ERA in a total of just 8.0 innings ... So far in 2012, Kennedy is 0-1, but leads the staff with 11 appearances and sports a 1.80 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 15.0 innings ... Primarily used as a starter in his first three seasons, Booden has come out of the pen for each of his nine appearances this year and is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 10.2 innings ... Last year's set up man, Gifford is 3-0 with four saves in his eight appearanes, sporting a 2.19 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 12.1 innings ... Together, the trio has racked up 46 strikeouts in 38.0 innings, an average of 10.89 K's per nine innings, and sports a 1.42 ERA.
BIRCHER IS KID K
Bradley senior left-hander Joe Bircher began the 2012 season 12th among active NCAA Division I pitchers wtih 189 career strikeous ... Bircher began this week ranked fifth nationally with 52 strikeouts ... Those 52 K's have come in 43.1 innings, giving him an average of 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings ... Bircher has climbed to seventh on the the list of active pitchers with 241 career strikeouts and sixth on the school's all-time strikeout list.
MURPHY MAKING MARK
Freshman centerfielder Max Murphy is second on the team with a .323 average, leads the team with a .470 on-base percentage, shares the team lead with four home runs and is tied for third with 13 RBI's ... Though he had his team-best, 11-game hitting streak snapped last Wednesday against UIC (0-3), Murphy has reached safely via a hit or a walk in all 21 games so far this year.
HAMSTRUNG
Hamstring injuries have hamstrung the Bradley offense of late ... The team's 2011 leading hitter, junior leftfielder Mike Tauchman, has been limited to four at-bats in the last 13 games due to a hamstring injury suffered March 3 at Memphis ... The team's 2012 leading hitter and run producer, senior second baseman Rob Elliott, came out of last Wednesday's game against UIC with a hamstring injury and did not play in the three games this past weekend at Southern Illinois.
FILLING IN
Freshman Chris Godinez did an admirable job filling in for Elliott at second base and in the leadoff spot this past weekend at Southern Illinois ... Godinez beat out two hits in each of the three games, going 6-for-14 (.462) with two walks (.533 on-base percentage), four stolen bases and four runs scored against the Salukis ... Filling the void in left field for Tauchman, who hit .343 last year and led the 2011 Braves with 37 walks and 32 RBI's, has been a bigger struggle ... In the 12 games without Tauchman as the starter, Bradley has used five different players in left field and the quintet has combined to bat .256 (11-43) with two walks and five RBI's ... Junior Andrew Wasmund showed signs of picking up the slack in the final two games at Southern Illinois this past weekend by going 4-for-8 with a double, a home run and three RBI's.
RUN PRODUCER
Senior second baseman Rob Elliott thrived in the leadoff spot through the season's first 18 games ... Elliott leads the team with a .365 batting average and sports a .429 on-base percentage ... His 22 runs scored easily leads the team and he is tied for third with 13 RBI's ... With two home runs contributing to both totals, Elliott was responsible for 33 Bradley runs in the season's first 18 games, an average of 1.83 runs produced per game.
LESS THAN SIX
Six has been the magical defensive number for the Braves this season ... Bradley is 10-2 when limiting the opposition to fewer than six runs, but 1-7-1 when the opposition scores at least six.
EIGHT IS GREAT
Bradley junior shortstop Jason Leblebijian helped get the Bradley bats going Feb. 25 by going 3-for-6 with two doubles, a home run and seven RBI's in a 19-3 romp against Arkansas-Little Rock ... Not to be outdone, senior second baseman Rob Elliott matched Leblebijian's eight total bases by hitting a pair of solo home runs that same day in a 2-1 victory against Belmont.
YOUNG GUNS
Sophomore catchers Austin Jarvis and Derek Sprout are making life difficult for would-be base stealers ... The duo has combined to throw out 15-of-28 (.536) runners trying to steal, including one each to end consecutive games against Yale (March 11) and Fairfield (March 12) ... Runners are just 9-for-20 against Jarvis, who now has thrown out 20-of-37 runners trying to steal against him in his first two season.
For a complete preview of Wednesday's baseball game versus Illinois, click the above link to the PDF version of Bradley's Game Notes Package.
