Doubleheader, a rainout, another doubleheader and a losing streak snapped.
Those are the bullet points of events that took place in Bradley’s series against Evansville this past weekend.
The Braves entered the weekend having lost seven straight, including their last four games at home, and looked to change their fortunes in their first contest against the Purple Aces.
With the first game moved from Thursday to a Friday doubleheader due to forecasted weather, the two sides had to prepare their players for a long afternoon of baseball, which led to an early pitching duel.
Bradley and Evansville were locked at a 1-1 tie through six innings. Lou Levy and Davis Webb were keeping the Purple Aces at bay, though the Braves failed to get a run off of Evansville’s Max Hansmann until the sixth inning.
The Purple Aces turned to their bullpen in the seventh inning and retired two of the first three Bradley hitters that came to the plate. A single from catcher Jaxon Schumaker extended the inning, giving the Braves two runners on base as outfielder Landon Lowe stepped to the plate.
Lowe ripped a double down the left field line, scoring both runners and giving the Braves their first lead of the day. Two batters later, infielder Hayden Miller followed suit with his own two-run double, and Bradley took a four-run lead.
“There was a lot of relentlessness inside that game, guys continuing to grind out at-bats,” head coach Justin Dedman said. “It started with two outs and one guy on, and we just kept punching. They made a couple of mistakes, and we made them pay for it. We had pressure kind of throughout the game, and I think that has been something we’ve been really good at in applying pressure.”
Webb was able to get the Braves through the eighth inning and one out in the ninth before turning it over to Joey Cirelli for the last two outs of the ballgame. Cirelli converted the save, and Bradley snapped their losing streak with a win in the first half of the doubleheader.
Game two started just over an hour later, and again looked like it was going to be another pitching battle. Braves starter Robert Sanford had allowed just one run through four innings, while Evansville’s Tanner Graham began his outing with four scoreless innings.
The game started to slip from Bradley in the fifth inning, though, as the Purple Aces began to put pressure on. After three straight bases-loaded walks forced Sanford out of the game, Evansville hit a two-run double of their own to get the lead up to seven.
“When you go through a lineup a third time, there’s a real opportunity for adjustment making at the same time that pitchers are often a little bit fatigued,” Dedman said. “And so to get through a lineup the third time, you’ve got to really focus and execute pitches, and oftentimes it’s just a matter of winning one extra pitch. This team needs to respond faster, not allowing one walk to turn into two or three bad things.”
After the top half of the inning, the game was paused due to the weather moving into the area. It became clear that the contest could not be finished that night and would have to be resumed the next day, which meant another doubleheader.
“I think it was a good emotional reset,” Dedman said. “It had been a long day, and it certainly allowed both teams to take breaks, physically and mentally. We were down 7-0 and so we needed a punch, and how we came out in terms of energy and conviction and getting good pitches to hit was tremendous.”
That conviction Dedman referenced came through in the bottom half of the fifth inning, when first baseman Anthony Martinez hit a two-run homer to cut into the deficit. After not being able to find runs in the sixth or seventh innings, Miller homered in the eighth to give Bradley a chance entering the final inning.
Ryan Schaffnit had done good work for the Braves to hold Evansville at bay, tossing three scoreless innings before the Purple Aces got to him in the ninth. A five-run outburst effectively put to rest any chances Bradley had at winning the game, setting up a series-deciding game later that afternoon.
Evansville kept its ninth-inning momentum going entering the rubber match, scoring three first-inning runs before eventually taking another 7-0 lead through the fifth inning.
The Braves once again responded, putting two runs on the board in the sixth and matching the Purple Aces’ two runs in the eighth. Trailing by five entering the final inning, though, the deficit was going to be tough to climb. After escaping a bases-loaded jam at the top of the inning, Bradley was sat down to close out both the game and the series.
With the loss, the Braves ended their first homestand of the season and traveled to Purdue for a midweek contest on Tuesday night against the Boilermakers. Bradley opened the game with a 2-0 lead through three innings and got two scoreless innings out of starter Josh Vaughn, who is continuing to build up in his return from injury.
“We’re excited that we’re adding Josh back into the weekend mix,” Dedman said. “He pitched for a second time this season at Purdue, and I think they would tell you he’s a pretty uncomfortable at-bat. He got a ton of swings and misses and had electric stuff, so we will really benefit from being able to extend him over the next several weeks into a bigger role.”
With Vaughn having exited the game, Purdue pounced in the next two innings, scoring five runs to take the lead. The Braves immediately responded to the deficit, scoring four runs in credit to good situational hitting and baserunning.
The lead would not stick though, as the Boilermakers tied it in the bottom of the sixth before scoring six runs the following inning, helped by mistakes made by Bradley in the walks allowed and errors columns. In the end, the Braves outhit Purdue, but the common theme of losing games late throughout the season showed itself again.
“I think it’s clear that we don’t have the pitching staff this year in terms of overall depth,” Dedman said. “Eventually, those guys get a third or fourth time through a lineup and are having trouble getting them out, or the guy who comes in behind him has a harder time executing pitches. The pitchers that are out there right now are capable of putting up goose eggs, but it’s going to take improvement, growth and change from them to be able to put up more low-scoring games.”
Bradley travels to Valparaiso this weekend to take on the Beacons in a series between two teams who are fighting for the final spot in the conference tournament.
“There’s only six teams to make the conference tournament,” Dedman said. “Right now, the two of us are at the bottom of the league, and so both teams are going to be really hungry to come out with a series win.”
