PEORIA, Ill. - Center fielder Max Murphy extended his season-long streak of 22 games reaching base safely with a home run in the bottom of the ninth, but it wasn't enough as the Braves (11-10-1) fell, 6-3, Wednesday night at O'Brien Field against the University of Illinois Fighting Illini (12-10).

 "Murphy has been great for us all year, he's been great defensively in center," said Bradley's Coach Elvis Dominguez, who acknowledged Murphy's leadership. "He plays much older than his age; he doesn't play like a freshman."

Left fielder Andrew Wasmund also stayed hot for the Braves. The junior has been filling in for injured Mike Tauchman in left field and took an offering from Ronnie Much over the left field fence for his second home run in as many games.

The Braves couldn't overcome a solid performance by Illini starting pitcher Nick Chmielewski (1-0), who recorded his first win of the season. The senior pitched six innings allowing only one unearned run and, despite a shaky start, didn't allow a base runner after the third inning.

Bradley used a total of seven pitchers during the game and at times their staff looked dominant. The bullpen took over in the third inning and recorded 11 strikeouts. This was the first game for the Braves since Sunday and Dominguez had planned to get his bullpen some work.

"(We) came in with that plan, had the same plan last week, the guys hadn't thrown for a while," Dominguez said, attributing the loss to execution. "We just didn't execute ... I think we had four base runners all night."

In the third inning, David Koll (0-1) came into relieve starting pitcher Troy Doerr, quickly retiring three of the first four batters he faced.

In the fourth, Koll struck out the first hitter looking, then Chillicothe native Jordan Parr reached base on an error.  Koll hit the next Illini batter and went on to walk three in the inning as Illinois scored two unearned runs and made the game 3-1 in their favor.

In the fifth, Illinois extended its lead to four. Bradley's fourth pitcher of the game, Steve Adkins, allowed two hits and two earned runs, but struck out two of the five batters he faced in one inning of work.

The teams traded 1-2-3 frames in the sixth and reliever Patrick Flanagan gave way to Bradley's trio of late inning relievers who have been dominant so far this year.

Rob Kennedy pitched the seventh for the Braves. The Chicago native entered the game with a 1.80 ERA and was second on the staff with 18 strikeouts in just 15 innings. He struck out two in the frame while allowing one run on two hits.

Jacob Booden turned in a dominant inning of relief for the Braves in the eighth, retiring all three batters and ended the inning by striking out another Chillicothe native, Illinois Valley Central High School standout Justin Parr, on three straight offerings.
In the Braves' half of the inning Wasmund hit a pitch by Illinois' reliever Ronnie Muck well over the left field wall and cut the Illini lead to four.

Dominguez turned to his closer, Danny Gifford, in the top half of the ninth and the senior turned in another impressive performance.  Gifford faced four batters in a scoreless ninth.

Murphy's streak-extending home run came with one out in the ninth but the Illini were able to put away any chance of a comeback and the game ended with a 6-3 Illinois victory.

The Braves are amidst a 9-game stretch facing in-state opponents and will travel to Macomb on Friday to face off against Western Illinois to kick-off a three game weekend series.