Baseball

MVC Baseball Tournament: Bradley 14, Illinois State 2

MVC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME 3 – No. 3 BRADLEY 14, No. 6 ILLINOIS STATE 2

DALLAS, TEXAS – In game three of the MVC Baseball Championship, No. 3 Bradley pounded out 19 hits to earn a 14-2 win in 7 innings over No. 6 Illinois State. The Braves will face the winner of the DBU/Valparaiso contest at 7:30 PM Thursday, while the Redbirds will take on the loser of the Patriots/Crusaders game at 12:30 PM.

Junior Andy Shadid led the Braves with two home runs in the winning effort, going 3-for-3 on the day. He is the first Brave with two home runs in one game since teammate Derek Bangert did so last year against Wichita State, while collecting three RBI and three runs on the day.
 
Bangert and junior Luke Mangieri both added home runs for the Braves as Bradley also had a season-best 19 hits. Junior Mitch Janssen pitched six innings of three-hit ball for his fifth victory of the season.
 
The victory is tied for the second-largest for Bradley in its MVC Tournament history – only BU's 18-3 win against Northern Iowa in 1996 was a larger margin of victory.
 
Bradley wasted no time in taking control of the game, racing to a 4-0 lead through one inning. After Janssen pitched a 1-2-3 frame to start the contest, sophomore Luke Shadid and Mangieri started the bottom of the inning with back-to-back doubles for the 1-0 advantage. Sophomore Brendan Dougherty added a two-run single before Andy Shadid's fifth home run of the season extended the Bradley lead to 4-0.
 
The Braves then added three runs in the third and fourth innings – all via the long ball. Bangert and Shadid went back-to-back in the third – their eighth and sixth homers, respectively, of the season – before Mangieri's fourth of the year gave Bradley the 7-0 lead.
 
After retiring the first 12 batters he faced, the Redbirds finally pulled one back off Janssen with a solo shot to start the fifth inning. Bradley, however, quickly erased any ISU hopes at a comeback as the Braves plated six runs in bottom half of the inning for the 13-1 lead. Andrew Ivelia opened the scoring with a two-run double, while Dougherty singled home one, Bangert scored on a wild pitch, Andy Shadid singled home another run and Eli Rawlinson completed the frame with an RBI single.
 
Both teams added one more run for the 14-2 Bradley victory.

Bradley improved to 31-17 with the victory, while Illinois State fell to 22-29 on the season.