The Iowa Hawkeyes, recently ranked in the D1 Baseball Top 25 but having dropped out this week in part due to a midweek loss last week to Illinois State before dropping 2 of 3 in a Big 10 series to Maryland, responded Wednesday night with a 9-6 win over Bradley in the night’s lone game involving Valley teams.
Iowa (21-6), which plays at Indiana this weekend, had to fight off a barrage of Bradley comebacks throughout the game, but the Braves (10-14, 3-3 MVC) couldn’t track down the Hawkeyes. Bradley scored in every half-inning following an Iowa scoring inning except one, when the Hawkeyes scored 2 runs in the 6th to take a 7-3 lead. Iowa 2B Sam Hojnar went 3-for-5 in the win with 2 runs, 4 RBIs, and a homer.
Bradley leadoff man Ryan Vogel had a great night in defeat, 3-for-3 with 2 walks, a stolen base, and 4 runs scored. Vogel is now hitting .415, good enough to lead the Braves. He also leads Bradley in OPS at 1.071. The 5 times on base Wednesday night lifted Vogel’s on-base percentage to .486. Vogel has 39 hits in 24 games this season.
Bradley C Logan Delgado homered and drove in 3 runs. It was Delgado’s (.370) 1st homer of the season.
Tonight: In the only Thursday action for The Valley, Belmont is scheduled to start its weekend series at Southern Illinois. The Bruins (18-12, 5-1) and Salukis (16-13, 5-1) are two of the trio of co-leaders in The Valley entering the weekend, along with Indiana State (15-12, 5-1).
Other series this weekend feature:
Illinois State at Indiana State
Valparaiso at Evansville
Bradley at Missouri State
UIC at Murray State
Life in the Valley 
Leave a comment