Baseball Opens 119th Season at UCA

The Braves and Bears will face off in a 3-game weekend series at Bears Stadium

Mitch Janssen delivers vs Missouri State

Andrew Hill

Bobby Parker, Associate AD for Communications Baseball 2/13/2019 5:18:00 PM

The 119th season of Bradley Baseball begins this weekend, when the Braves (32-19 in 2018) visit Central Arkansas (32-25) for a 3-game set Friday (3 p.m.), Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) at Bear Stadium.

The Braves welcome back 21 lettermen, including 11 pitchers and six position starters, from its 2018 squad that eclipsed 30 wins for the second time in four years. Coming off its third third-place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference standings in the last four years, Bradley was picked fourth in the 2019 MVC preseason poll and the Braves are receiving votes in the Collegiate Baseball preseason top 40.

FOLLOW ALONG
Games 1-3 • Bradley at UCA • Conway, AR • Bear Stadium
Friday • 3 p.m. • T ickets • Bear Nation Network
Saturday • 1 p.m. • T ickets • Bear Nation Network
Sunday • 1 p.m. • T ickets • Bear Nation Network

WEEKEND ROTATION
Friday – Mitch Janssen, Sr., RHP
Saturday – Brooks Gosswein, So., LHP
Sunday – Sam Lund, Sr., RHP

TOP THREE RETURN … AGAIN
For the second consecutive year, Bradley returns its top three hitters from the previous season … Bradley has not returned its top three hitters in consecutive years since 1993 (40-16) and 1994 (35- 26) … Junior 3B Brendan Dougherty (.323 in 2018) and junior SS Luke Shadid (.325) both return as top-three team hitters in both of the last two seasons, while senior CF Andy Shadid led the 2018 Braves with a .326 average.

PITCHING RETURNS
The 2018 season marked the second season (1996) in program history the Bradley pitching staff featured three hurlers who each started at least 13 games … Senior RHP Mitch Janssen (16 starts), senior LHP Cole Cook (13) and senior RHP Sam Lund (13) all return for the 2018 campaign … In the previous 118 years of Bradley Baseball, the Braves have never rolled out a staff that featured three hurlers who all started at least 13 games the previous season … The senior trio started 42 of Bradley's 51 games last season … In all, Bradley loses only one start from last year's pitching staff - 2018 MLB draft pick Boby Johnson started the third-round MVC Tournament game versus Dallas Baptist … Bradley returns six pitchers who combined for the other 50 starting assignments in 2018, equalling the most returning pitching starts since the 2005 Braves brought back 52 starts.

WINNING AWAY FROM HOME
Bradley completed the 2018 campaign as one of the most-improved teams in the nation, despite playing 37 of its 51 games away from home ... Bradley tied for sixth nationally by racking up 24 wins away from home in 2018 … Since the start of 2014, Bradley is third in the MVC with 95 wins away from home ... Bradley's 95 road (59) and neutral (36) wins the last five years represent 67.9 percent of the team's 140 total wins, the highest percentage of wins accumulated away from home in The Valley the last five years ... Bradley is scheduled to play at least 32 games away from home in 2019.

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