A traveling nightmare, a grand slam and 35 runs highlighted Bradley baseball’s weekend series in Kentucky against Western Michigan. Even after the schedule shuffle, the Braves were able to take two of three from the Broncos as they kicked off the 2022 season.
Bradley (2-1) was originally slated to face Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, but due to the inclement weather in Peoria on Feb. 17, their flight was canceled and plans needed to be changed. Other northern schools that were traveling south, such as University of Illinois-Chicago and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, had other arrangements, which left head coach Elvis Dominguez scrambling.
Luckily, Dominguez used to be the skipper at Eastern Kentucky, so he phoned some friends and secured a field and an opponent to play.
“I was able to call the athletic director [at Eastern Kentucky] directly and he basically said, ‘Yes, absolutely, we’ll make it work,’” Dominguez said. “Western Michigan was in the same boat [as us].”
Since Dominguez knew the Broncos’ coach well, the two were able to agree on finalizing the last-minute series.
Once the Braves were finally able to play on Saturday, they found themselves down 7-4 in the seventh thanks to a three-run homer by the Broncos. After third baseman Jackson Chatterton drove in a run with a single to bring the deficit to 7-5, the sophomore came up again in the eighth, this time with the bases loaded and Bradley trailing by a run.
“I knew I had been struggling at the plate that whole day prior [to that at bat],” Chatterton said. “I was just thinking, ‘Get on the fastball early.’”
The sophomore did just that, as he sent the first pitch he saw over the right-center fence for his first career grand slam, giving Bradley the 11-8 lead and eventual victory.
“It was a happy accident that just elevated out of the ballpark,” Chatterton said. “Coach always says ‘Hit it right back at the pitcher,’ and I just did that.”
Sunday featured a doubleheader, the first of which was a seven-inning affair highlighted by a five-run final frame to give the Braves a 7-2 victory. Freshman second baseman Cal McGinnis went three for three and hit his first collegiate home run, while starter Jacob Kisting went five innings, only allowing two hits and striking out four in the freshman’s first collegiate appearance.
“They’ve got a lot of talent [and] a lot of potential for them to go ahead and perform the way they did,” Dominguez said about the two newcomers. “With Cal, he got his first hit on Saturday, and obviously hitting a home run was icing on the cake. He was Steady Eddie all the way through. Jacob was the same. He competed really [well] and gave us a chance to win the game.”
The third game of the weekend was an offensive clinic on both sides. Western Michigan slashed Braves starter Troy Hickey for five runs in the first before junior Connor O’Brien homered to bring the score to 5-1. Both teams scored again, but the Broncos launched a three-run bomb in the top of the third to extend their lead to 9-2.
For the next two and a half innings, it was all Bradley. The Braves scored 11 unanswered runs on eight hits and six walks, three of which for RBIs, to take a 13-9 lead.
That lead would hold until the ninth when it would become Western Michigan’s turn to take advantage of mistakes. Off the back of three straight hit batsmen, two RBI walks and only two hits, the inning culminated in a Western Michigan grand slam to complete the eight-run frame. Bradley got a few back in the bottom of the inning, but it wasn’t enough as they fell 19-17.
“We’ve already been playing baseball for four hours at that point,” Chatterton said. “Everyone was just getting a little fatigued and I guess they got the best of us there.”
As evidence of that fatigue, infielder Peter Hansen was forced onto the mound in that final inning, something Dominguez said he had to do in such a dire pitching situation.
“We were short-handed, especially on the pitching side, so we just need some guys to carry the load until we get some of those healthy guys back,” Dominguez said. “On a normal weekend, I wouldn’t have done what we had to do, but we had nobody else. Everybody that went in really competed well, and I’m really proud of the effort in the game.”
Despite not having success on the mound, Hansen was able to hit a team-leading .625 with a 1.550 OPS in the series while drawing six walks. Sophomores Carson Husmann and TJ Manteufel picked up four RBIs each while O’Brien led the team with five of his own to cap off the explosive offensive weekend.
The last – and only – time that the Braves scored more than 35 runs in a three-game series to open the season came in 1956.
“Good pitching stops good hitting, and vice versa,” Dominguez said. “We were fortunate enough [to] capitalize on all their mistakes. We didn’t miss many pitches when we had runners in scoring position or when we had to really distance ourselves and get a couple of runs on the board.”
Next up, the Braves are set to compete in the Music City Challenge starting today in Nashville.
Do you ever wish you were a part of the games instead of just writing about them?