I-74 Rivaly Closes Regular Season

Bradley Baseball will face Illinois State in a 3-game series at Dozer Park with postseason tournament seeding on the line

Josh Schwam

Bradley Pre-Series Notes

Bobby Parker, Associate AD for Communications Baseball 5/19/2021 1:13:00 PM

PEORIA – A wide range of seeding possibilities for next week's Missouri Valley Conference Baseball Championship are in play as Bradley Baseball prepares to host I-74 rival Illinois State for a 3-game series to wrap up the regular season Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Dozer Park.

SERIES DETAILS
Illinois State (21-30, 11-13 MVC) at Bradley (18-19, 10-9 MVC)
Peoria, IL | Dozer Park
Thursday, May 20 | 11:00 AM | ESPN3 | Live Stats | Tickets
Friday, May 21 | 11:00 AM | ESPN3 | Live Stats | Tickets
Saturday, May 22 | 11:00 AM | ESPN3 | Live Stats | Tickets

SETTING THE SCENE
• With a wide range of possibilities on the table, I-74 rivals Bradley and Illinois State will be battling for postseason position when they meet in the final regular-season series of the season Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Dozer Park.
• While the Missouri Valley Conference schedule has consisted of 4-game series this year, the Bradley-Illinois State series will consist only of three games due to the concurrent Peoria Chiefs schedule at Dozer Park this week.
• Bradley enters the rivalry series alone in fourth in the league standings, 1.5 games behind 2nd-place Indiana State and 1.5 games in front of 5th-place Illinois State.
• The Braves can finish anywhere from second to seventh in the final MVC standings, while Illinois State has the potential to finish anywhere but first in the 8-team standings.
• The weekend series will represent the final home games for eight Bradley seniors, who will be honored along with 2020 senior Luke Shadid in a Saturday pregame ceremony.

SECOND SEED SCENARIOS
• Bradley enters the final series of the season fourth in the MVC standings, 1.5 games behind second-place Indiana State (at Evansville) and 3.5 games ahead of the two teams tied for seventh, weekend opponents Valparaiso and Missouri State.
• Based on the final series pairings, Bradley can finish anywhere from second to seventh in final MVC standings.
• Bradley must win at least two of the three games against Illinois State to have a shot at finishing second.
• In addition to winning at least two against the Redbirds, Bradley must win two more games in this final series than Indiana State (at Evansville) and at least one more game than Southern Illinois (vs. Dallas Baptist).
• Bradley has not finished as high as second in the MVC standings since 1987.

TOP FOUR SEED SCENARIOS
• The top four in the final MVC standings will be placed directly into the double-elimination portion of next week's MVC Baseball Championship, while the bottom four seeds will face a single-elimination playoff to gain entry into the 6-team, double-elimination tournament.
• Winning one game in the series against Illinois State will keep Bradley ahead of everyone below the Braves in the current league standings.
• An Illinois State series sweep would guarantee Bradley a bottom four finish in the standings.

SERIES NOTES
Games 226-228 | Illinois State leads 116-109
• It should not come as a surprise that the series against I-74 rival Illinois State is the most-played against a single opponent in Bradley Baseball history.
•   The 3-game weekend series will represent games 226, 227 and 228 in a series Illinois State leads by a narrow, 116-109 count.
•   Illinois State is 57-51 all-time in games at Bradley, including 21-13 at Dozer Park.
•   Although Illinois State won 2-of-3 games in the most-recent series between the local rivals in 2019, Bradley had won each of the previous three series in 2016 (2-1), 2017 (2-1) and 2018 (3-1 with a MVC Tourney win included).
•   Since dropping the first two games of the 2014 series, which was played at Indiana State due to poor field conditions at both Illinois State and Dozer Park, Bradley is 10-7 in the last 17 games against the Redbirds.

THE 11-WIN VALLEY THRESHOLD
• Bradley enters the final, 3-game series versus Illinois State with a 10-9 league record.
• The Braves have won 11 Valley games in three of the previous four league seasons: 2016 (11-9), 2018 (11-10) and 2019 (11-10) - no Valley games were played in 2020.
• Bradley has not won more than 11 Valley regular-season games since 2007 (13-11).
• If Bradley can match that 2007 win total by sweeping Illinois State, the team's 13-9 (.591) record would give the Braves their best Valley winning percentage since 1993 (13-7, .650) and their second-best league W-L percentage since league-wide conference play was re-introduced to The Valley in 1981.

FIGHTING PEDIATRIC BRAIN CANCER
• For the seventh consecutive season, Bradley Baseball has joined the fight against pediatric brain cancer by raising awareness and funds for the Vs. Cancer Foundation.
• Bradley's 2021 effort is being spearheaded by senior OF Dan Bolt and senior 3B Brendan Dougherty.
• As of May 13, Bradley leads all NCAA Division I baseball teams by raising $23,798on behalf of Vs. Cancer, pushing the program's seven-year fundraising total to more than $100,000
• In its annual sign of support to the children suffering through treatment, the Braves conducted their annual postgame head shave April 18.
• Bradley Baseball Vs. Cancer donation page: https://team.curethekids.org/team/346514.

UP NEXT
• The 2021 MVC Baseball Championship will be played Tuesday-Saturday at Southern Illinois.
• The tournament will begin with two "play-in" games Tuesday between seeds 5-8.
• The two play-in winners will enter into the 6-team, double-elimination tournament, which begins with three games Wednesday.
• Tournament Central

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Players Mentioned

#10 Luke Shadid: IF; 5' 10"; Senior; R/R

#35 Dan Bolt: OF; 6' 1"; Senior; L/R

#26 Brendan Dougherty: IF; 6' 2"; Senior; L/R

Players Mentioned

#10 Luke Shadid
: 5' 10"; Senior; R/R
: IF

#35 Dan Bolt
: 6' 1"; Senior; L/R
: OF

#26 Brendan Dougherty
: 6' 2"; Senior; L/R
: IF

I-74 Rivaly Closes Regular Season

Bradley Baseball will face Illinois State in a 3-game series at Dozer Park with postseason tournament seeding on the line

Players Mentioned

#10 Luke Shadid

#35 Dan Bolt

#26 Brendan Dougherty

Players Mentioned

#10 Luke Shadid

#35 Dan Bolt

#26 Brendan Dougherty