Bradley University Athletics

Baseball to Start Season Friday in Normal

The Braves will play the earliest "home" games in program history,when they take on #30 Ball State (2-2) at The Corn Crib

James Franks

Live Stats

Bobby Parker, Associate AD for Communications Baseball 2/25/2021 11:59:00 AM

NORMAL, IL – Thanks to a break in the winter weather, the availability of an artificial turf field in the area and a COVID-19 pause in another school's athletics department, Bradley Baseball suddenly will host a season-opening series Friday and Saturday at The Corn Crib.

Bradley (0-0) was not scheduled to open the season until next weekend with a 3-game set at New Orleans, but a break in the weather and the availability of The Corn Crib opened the door for the Braves to play relatively close to home and they found an opponent, #30 Ball State (2-2), when Charleston Southern announced Tuesday it was pausing all athletic activities through March 1. The Buccaneers were scheduled to host Ball State for a 3-game series in the Swig & Swine Classic Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Braves and Cardinals will play a doubleheader Friday, starting at 5 p.m., then will conclude the 3-game set with a single game at 8 o'clock Saturday night. Due to on-going COVID-19 mitigation protocols, fans will not be permitted to attend any of the three games. Live stats will be available at BradleyBraves.com.

Because Bradley will be handling all game management operations at The Corn Crib, the three games will go down officially as home contest by NCAA rules. As such, the series will represent Bradley Baseball's first-ever February home games and the Braves will open the season "at home" for the first time since 1988, when they swept a doubleheader against Missouri Baptist at the old Meinen Field on March 5, the previous earliest calendar-year date on which Bradley played a home game.

A handful of Bradley players have more experience playing at The Corn Crib than Dozer Park, the downtown Peoria home for the Braves. Although Bradley has not hosted a game at Bradley Park since a 7-2 win against Illinois State May 12, 2019, several Braves played in the Kernels Collegiate League this past summer at The Corn Crib. Bradley has played two previous games at The Corn Crib, where the Braves are 2-0 all-time: Bradley beat Northern Illinois, 5-1 in seven innings March 15, 2014 and followed three days later with a 5-3 win against Illinois-Springfield.

The Cardinals (2-2) are coming off a 4-game split in their season-opening series this past weekend at Arizona, which bumped Ball State to No. 30 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Newspaper national poll. The Ball State coaching staff includes pitching coach Larry Scully, who is in his second year with the Cardinals, following a five-year (2015-19) stint mentoring the Bradley staff.

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