“Unforeseen” is a fitting word to describe Bradley baseball’s 2021-22 season.
Half of the pitching staff has been injured for a majority of the season, multiple games have been called off due to weather and a true freshman has emerged as the ace in the rotation.
Last weekend, the Braves — one of the few MVC teams with a sub-.500 winning percentage — took a series win against the No. 16 team in the nation and perennial Missouri Valley Conference powerhouse Dallas Baptist. However, the players won’t tell you it was an unforeseen outcome.
“We knew that we’re a team that could [beat DBU],” sophomore outfielder Carson Husmann said. “The vibes were good, but we also knew that we couldn’t let up either.”
The Braves did quite the opposite of letting up, stunning the Patriots with six runs in the first inning of the series-opening game on April 14.
Facing one of the best arms in the MVC in Jacob Meador, senior catcher Keaton Rice led off the scoring with an RBI double. With one out in the inning, junior designated hitter Connor Manthey reached second on a misjudged fly ball from Patriots’ right fielder George Specht, allowing the Braves to go up by a pair.
The out that Specht fumbled away proved to eventually be costly, as freshman outfielder Michael Mylott singled home Rice and redshirt freshman infielder Peter Hansen blasted a 3-run homer to put the Braves up 6-0 in the first inning. Husmann said that adjusting to Meador’s fastball and the gusty wind blowing toward the outfield contributed to the early scoring outburst.
“Our hitters batted around in the first inning and kind of set the tone for the series,” Husmann said.
Junior first baseman Connor O’Brien lifted his sixth homer of the year, a solo blast to left-center field, to put the Braves up 7-0 in the second inning and leave the Dallas Baptist dugout stunned.
The Patriots regrouped with four unanswered runs, however Mylott blasted a two-run homer in the sixth and Husmann continued the Braves’ slugfest with a solo shot the next inning, ensuring a 10-4 Bradley victory.
In a season marred by shaky pitching and fielding miscues, the Braves played a clean game defensively, and freshman ace Jacob Kisting and sophomore reliever Taylor Catton combined to strike out 14 DBU batters and leave nine stranded on the basepaths.
“[They had] momentum on the mound,” senior pitcher Nick King said of Kisting and Catton. “They were just throwing it in the zone with conviction and [were] not really scared to pitch to those guys and that just carried over to me and Matt [Hamilton].”
Hamilton, a fellow senior, got the starting nod in the second game of the 3-game set and allowed three runs in five innings. The Oak Creek, Wisconsin, native was, arguably, not responsible for DBU’s trio of runs, as two came across on an error from Bradley freshman third baseman Jack Lincoln, and the other came on an inside-the-park home run from Dallas Baptist’s Jace Grady. The rare sight occurred after Mylott dove and missed attempting to catch a fly ball, injuring his collarbone in the process.
Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth, O’Brien and Rice both singled with one out for the Braves. Facing DBU’s lockdown closer Chandler Arnold, Husmann slugged his second home run in as many days, putting the Braves in the driver’s seat 4-3.
After striking out thrice on Thursday, Husmann was ready for what Arnold would feed to him, allowing the Braves outfielder to connect on what he says was the most clutch hit of his career.
“I was struggling waiting back on the slider Thursday, so we kind of figured he was going to come back with that slider and try and get me out with that,” Husmann said. “The goal was to just punch something through … and pass the bat over to [Connor] Manthey and have him tie it and then, sure enough, the slider came up in the zone and I was able to put a good swing on it.”
“I saw [the home run] and I was honestly just trying to keep my cool in the dugout because I knew I had to go out there and finish the game for us,” King, who pitched four scoreless innings of relief, added. “I really wanted to let my emotions go and cheer for them.”
In fact, Manthey would have put Bradley in the lead anyways, as he sent a pitch from Arnold over the fence on the very next at-bat, pushing the Braves ahead 5-3 before King put the finishing touches on the series-clinching victory.
King allowed just two hits but five walks in his scoreless extended relief outing. Despite the spotless line, things weren’t always easy for King on the mound against a fearsome DBU lineup, but he turned the performance into an MVC Pitcher of the Week award.
“My changeup is my best pitch and it was working well that day,” King said. “I had some great defense behind me. It seems like, especially when we’re playing a team like DBU, there’s always pressure on you. It gets even more elevated when there’s runners on, but it’s a lot of fun to play like that.”
The Braves could never get the bats going in the series finale on the eve of Easter, going five innings without recording a hit until sophomore outfielder Ryan Vogel doubled in the sixth and came around to score on a single from Rice.
The Patriots, who came into the contest near the top in the MVC in many offensive categories , managed just seven hits but avoided the series sweep with a 6-1 victory behind three RBI from shortstop Blayne Jones.
The series win was the Braves’ first over a top-25 team since 2016, when they, coincidentally, beat Dallas Baptist. Despite their 11-19 overall mark, which Husmann says could easily be the other way around, the Braves are 3-3 in MVC play, putting them in the thick of things with a month left in the regular season.
“Our biggest takeaway is that when we’re having fun, playing good and staying loose out there, we’re a good team,” King said. “We proved that to ourselves this weekend against DBU: the best team in the conference.”
“We’re a good team and everyone saw it this weekend,” Husmann said. “When pitchers pitch, fielders field and hitters hit, you can beat anybody in the game.”
