Bradley shuts out Baseball to take series

Sunday, May 8

Peoria, Ill.

12:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

18-29, 8-7

Bradley

22-23, 4-11

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
Bradley	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	X	4	7	1

05/08/2011 | 12:00:00 | Baseball

Box Score

May 8, 2011

By Jason Clay
SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

PEORIA, Ill. - The Southern Illinois baseball team was shut out for the second time in three games, as Bradley beat the Salukis 4-0 Sunday at O'Brien Field to win the series two games to one.

SIU (18-28, 8-7 Missouri Valley Conference) had just five hits on the day and stranded nine on-base. Bradley (22-23, 4-11) scored four runs off of seven hits and it drew six walks.

John Nasshan led the Braves to Sunday's win, throwing eight strong innings and allowing just four hits. He overcame five walks and had three strikeouts to improve to 3-5 on the year.

Saluki starter Brad Drust drew the loss to drop to 2-4 on the season. He went three-plus innings, allowing six hits and four runs.

Second baseman Brock Harding was the lone Saluki with two hits in the game and he was 2-for-3 on the day with a walk.

Bradley's three, four and five hole hitters - Mike Tauchman, Brad Kimball and Jerrod Eigsti - all drove in one run and shortstop Jason Leblebijian had a team-high two hits and scored once.

Southern Illinois drew leadoff walks in both the first and second innings, but couldn't get anything out of the free base runners.

Bradley on the other hand was able to capitalize when it got its leadoff men on base in the first two innings. Rob Elliott drew a leadoff walk to start the first and Brian Martin singled to start the second. Both men scored on infield groundouts.

Southern started the third with back-to-back singles from Dustin Huff and Chris Murphy, but was unable to bring home a run.

That missed opportunity hurt, as the Braves hit four-straight singles with one out in the third to score to two more runs and push their lead up to 4-0.

Drust walked the first two batters to start the fourth before being relieved by Andrew Bever, who got SIU out of the inning without giving up a run.

The Salukis loaded the bases up in the top of the fifth with two walks and a hit batter, but once again were unable to bring home any runs.

Bever kept the Salukis in the game by not allowing a hit from the fourth until the bottom of the eighth, but SIU was unable to get a hit of its own to ignite any comeback.

SIU did get two base runners on in the ninth, but as was the story of the day, couldn't bring them home and ended up losing by the 4-0 score.