Bradley Falters in MVC Tourney

PEORIA, Ill. – Bradley softball hoped to reach the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title game for the third time in 11 years, but Drake All-American hurler Nicole Newman tossed a perfect game against the Braves as the Bulldogs advanced with a 7-0 victory in Friday’s semifinal at Petersen Hotels Field at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.

Newman tied the MVC Tournament single-game record with 18 strikeouts, also matching her season and career high. The perfect game was Newman’s fifth of the year and the 11th no hitter in MVC Tournament history.

Bradley (29-21 overall) managed to put just three balls in play off Newman, who fanned 11 of the first 12 batters she faced.  Sophomore Taise Thompson had one of the best plate appearances of the day for the Braves when she led off the top of the fifth with a 12-pitch at bat, but Newman got her to foul out to the catcher.

Four Bradley errors in the game helped lead to five unearned runs for Drake (41-14 overall).   The Bulldogs also slugged out 12 hits, including five doubles against BU pitching.

Mandi Roemmich led off the bottom of the first with a walk and scored the first run of the contest on a one-out double to left center off the bat of Kennedy Frank as Drake took an early 1-0 lead.

Bradley starter Emma Jackson induced a ground ball double play to get out of the first without any more damage and worked out of jams in both the second and third innings as the Bulldogs stranded five runners in the first three frames.

A pair of Bradley errors in the fourth helped lead to two Drake runs, pushing the Bulldog advantage to 3-0.  Drake tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to push the lead to 7-0.  A two-out error loaded the bases for the Bulldogs and Libby Ryan had the big hit of the day for Drake with a three-run double to left.  Ryan would eventually score on a Roemmich double to left.

Newman struck out the side on nine pitches in the top of the sixth and closed out the perfect game with three straight punchouts in the top of the seventh.

Teutopolis graduate Allison Apke played first base for Bradley.

With the win Drake advanced to Saturday’s 1 p.m. championship game, where the Bulldogs will face #3 seed Northern Iowa, which posted a 2-0 victory over #2 seed Southern Illinois.