Looking to end their nine-game skid, Bradley baseball began their conference slate over the weekend, traveling to Terre Haute to take on Indiana State in a three-game series.
Bradley jumped ahead in their quest to snap their losing streak as infielder Hayden Miller hit a two-run homer in the first inning. Though Indiana State halved the lead in the second, the Braves tallied four runs in the top of the fourth inning thanks to two-run doubles from Jaxon Schumacher and Sohrab Rezaei.
The Sycamores cut the deficit down to three in the bottom of the inning and loaded the bases with one out. After Bradley made a pitching change, Indiana State’s Carter Beck hit a grand slam, and the Braves saw their lead evaporate as quickly as it was built.
The game remained scoreless from the fifth inning through the seventh, before the Braves started to put together a rally in the eighth. With runners on second and third with one out, outfielder AJ Garcia laid down a bunt, attempting to score the tying run. Not only was the bunt successful, but the Sycamores also committed an error on the play, allowing the go-ahead run to score and restoring Bradley’s lead.
The Braves added on another run at the next at-bat, as Rezaei hit an RBI single to score Garcia, and then another run scored in the ninth to make it 10-7. Though the Sycamores hit a home run with two outs and got the tying run to the plate, right-hander Joey Cirelli was able to close it out for Bradley to snap the losing streak and win their first conference game.
Looking to generate momentum, Bradley jumped ahead in the first inning again in Game 2 with a Luke Skinner RBI single. However, that would be the only offense the Braves would generate for some time.
Indiana State didn’t get their runs in bunches; rather, they stacked one run each in the second, fourth and fifth, plus two in the sixth, to take a 5-1 lead. Bradley couldn’t generate any offense off of Sycamores starter Ty Brooks, who pitched seven innings and allowed just two more hits and no more runs after the first inning.
Indiana State blew the game open in the seventh with three more runs, and though the Braves were able to get two runs back across the eighth and ninth, it ultimately wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit that had built as they fell 8-3.
It appeared as though Bradley was going to take the series in Game 3. After three scoreless innings to start the ballgame, they leapt to a 9-0 advantage across the fourth and fifth, headlined by three home runs, including a grand slam from Garcia. The Sycamores cut the lead down to 9-2, but the Braves added another run in the sixth to regain a 10-2 advantage.
But then it fell apart for Bradley.
The Sycamores quickly rallied back into the game, scoring eight runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game, capped off by a grand slam from Emil Estrella. Estrella then singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh, and in a flash, Indiana State had its first lead of the game.
The Sycamores proceeded to add another two runs in the bottom of the eighth, before Estrella hit his second grand slam of the game to effectively put the game away. The Braves were only able to get one hit in the ninth, as Indiana State took the series rubber match, 18-10.
Bradley will return to conference action this weekend, with their home opener coming on Friday against defending conference champions and College World Series participants Murray State.
