Baseball Opens Spring Break Trip at South Florida

Baseball 3/10/2022 2:00:00 PM

The Bradley baseball team begins its Spring Break trip with a three-game series at South Florida this weekend. The schools open the weekend on Friday with a 5:30 p.m. first pitch.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• The Braves are 3-6 during the 2022 season.
• Bradley was swept at Southeast Missouri State last weekend. Carson Husmann, Connor O'Brien and Keaton Rice each led BU with four hits.
• Five Braves are hitting over .300 through nine games with O'Brien leading BU in average (.300), doubles (four), home runs (two) and runs (12).
• Sophomore Taylor Catton leads Bradley on the mound with a 2.89 earned run average in five appearances.

ABOUT THE BULLS
• South Florida enters the three-game series with an 8-5 record – splitting a midweek series against Boston College on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Carmine Lane and Drew Brutcher lead USF at the plate – each hitting 17 RBI. Lane has a team-best .423 average, while Brutcher leads the Bulls with six home runs.
• On the mound, USF owns an ERA of just 4.17 with its opponent scoring more than three runs just one in the last six weekend games.

SERIES HISTORY
• The schools are meeting for the first time on the baseball diamond this weekend.

OFFENSIVE ORIENTED
• Bradley games have featured a lot of runs this season.
• BU and its opponent have combined to score 149 runs in just nine games this season – an average of 16.6 runs per game, which is easily the highest average in the Valley this season.
• Overall, Bradley is second in the Valley in batting average (.294), third in on-base percentage (.357) and third in slugging percentage (.480).

BALANCED ATTACK
• The Bradley offense has clicked from a balanced standpoint in 2022.
• BU entered the week as the only MVC school to feature three players hitting at least .300 and eight players with at least one home run.

O'BRIEN DOES IT ALL
• Junior Connor O'Brien has done it all for Bradley at the plate this season.
• The first baseman leads BU in batting average (.353), hits (12), runs scored (nine), doubles (4), home runs (2) and slugging percentage (.647), while ranking second in RBI (10).
• O'Brien currently ranks 10th in the league in batting average, 10th in slugging percentage and fifth in doubles (despite playing just nine games so far in 2022).

CATTON LEADS FROM THE PEN
• Sophomore Taylor Catton has led the Braves on the mound this season with all five of his appearances coming from the bullpen.
• The sophomore owns a 1-0 record with a 2.89 earned run average and one save so far.
• In fact, Catton ranks sixth in the Valley in ERA and third in batting average against (.206). He is one of only two relievers to rank in the top 10 in the Valley in ERA and one of three to rank in the top 10 of batting average.
• Catton has currently retired the last 12 batters he has faced.

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