Bradley Game Notes Packet (PDF) | Watch Live | Listen Live | Live Stats | Ticket Information
BRADLEY BRAVES (21-7, 2-1 MVC) at #16 DALLAS BAPTIST PATRIOTS (24-6, 6-3 MVC)
April 10-12, 2015 | Dallas, Texas | Jon & Andy Horner Ballpark (2,000)
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PROJECTED STARTERS
Game 1 | Friday, April 10 | 6:30 p.m.
Bradley: Elliot Ashbeck, Jr., RHP, 7-1, 2.17 ERA, 49.2 IP, 38 K, 14 BB
Dallas Baptist: Joseph Shaw, Jr., RHP, 5-1, 2.87 ERA, 37.2 IP, 30 K, 13 BB
Game 2 | Saturday, April 11 | 2:00 p.m.
Bradley: Steve Adkins, Jr., RHP, 4-1, 2.19 ERA, 37.0 IP, 35 K, 15 BB
Dallas Baptist: Cory Taylor, Jr., RHP, 3-1, 4.29 ERA, 35.2 IP, 38 K, 11 BB
Game 3 | Sunday, March April 12 | 1:00 p.m.
Bradley: Brent Stong, Jr., LHP, 3-2, 5.18 ERA, 40.0 IP, 25 K, 10 BB
Dallas Baptist: TBA
EARLY VALLEY SHOWDOWN
One of the nation's top teams away from home will face one of the country's top home teams when Missouri Valley Conference rivals Bradley and Dallas Baptist meet for a 3-game series this weekend at Jon & Andy Horner Ballpark ... Bradley is making its first-ever trip to DBU, which joined The Valley as an affiliate member in baseball for the 2014 season ... The Braves are 17-5 away from home this season and the 17 road and neutral wins are tied for the fourth most among the nation's top 100 RPI teams, while DBU is 12-0 at home and its 15-game home winning streak dating to last season is the longest in the nation after Maryland's loss to George Washington Wednesday night ... Bradley is playing just its second Valley series of the season, while the weekend set will be the fourth league series of the year for Dallas Baptist, which took 2-of-3 at Evansville, swept Illinois State and lost 2-of-3 at Missouri State.
SERIES NOTES
Dallas Baptist Leads 6-1
This weekend's series will make up games eight, nine and 10 in the all-time series between Bradley and Dallas Baptist, which began with a 3-game set in 2012 in Peoria through a scheduling arrangement between DBU and the Missouri Valley Conference ... The Patriots have won six of the first seven meetings in the series with Bradley's lone win a 12-7 triumph May 18, 2012 in the second game of that initial series ... The Patriots swept four games against Bradley last season as Valley rivals, taking all three games March 28-30 at Dozer Park before dealing the Braves a 6-5 loss in the second round of the MVC Tournament May 21 in Terre Haute.
LOOSE CONNECTIONS
Although Bradley and Dallas Baptist are young Valley rivals with a limited series history, there are some loose connections between the two programs ... Perhaps the most notable DBU Baseball alum, Major Leaguer Ben Zobrist (Oakland A's), hails from Eureka, Ill., a community of approximately 5,400 located approximately 20 miles due east of the Bradley campus ... Dallas Baptist junior pitcher Sean Stutzman is one of two Illinois natives on the Patriots roster and he attended the same high school (Palatine William Fremd H.S.) as former Bradley All-American and 2013 NCAA batting champion Mike Tauchman ... Stutzman's high school coach, Chris Piggott, played at Creighton University under then Bluejays assistant coach and current Bradley head coach Elvis Dominguez.
WINNING AWAY FROM HOME
Through games of April 7, Bradley was tied for fourth among the nation's top 100 RPI teams with 17 wins away from home ... The Braves are 9-4 in true road games and 8-1 on neutral fields.
FACING LEAGUE LEADERS
Not only has Bradley enjoyed success away from home this year, the Braves have excelled against tough competition ... As conference play around the nation resumes this weekend, nine of Bradley's 11 NCAA Division I non-conference opponents currently sit either first or second in their respective league standings ... Bradley has played 10 of those 11 teams away from home ... The combination of facing strong competition away from home has helped lift Bradley to No. 23 in the RPI and 12 in the Nolan Power Index heading into this weekend's road series against No. 1 RPI and NPI team Dallas Baptist.
