PEORIA, Ill. – A Jean-Francois Garon home run highlighted a five-run sixth for Bradley on Saturday afternoon, and the University of Evansville baseball team was unable to recover as the Purple Aces fell 6-0 to the host Braves at Dozer Park.
Connor Strain earned the nod from UE head coach Wes Carroll, and he was strong early, tossing four scoreless frames before Bradley (19-24, 5-9 MVC) drew first blood with a fifth-inning sacrifice fly, but things would come apart an inning later as a walk and a pair of errors loaded the bases with no outs.
Brandon Gomer, who entered the game for Strain after the first error, gave up a hit down the left field line to make it 3-0, and Garon followed up two pitches later with a three-run blast to double the advantage.
Strain, who gave up two runs across five starts in April, was charged with allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits over five-plus innings. With the loss, the senior right-hander drops to 2-4 on the season.
Meanwhile, Strain's counterpart, Cole Cook, impressed, allowing five hits in a complete game shutout to improve to 7-4 on the year.
Offensively, Garon led the way for the Braves, going 3-for-4 at the plate as the team out-hit UE (14-31, 5-8 MVC) in 7-5 fashion.
The two sides will return to Dozer Park on Sunday for a rubber game. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.
NOTES: Prior to Saturday's loss, UE had won four consecutive MVC road games … UE will be looking for its second conference series win of the season on Sunday … Travis Tokarek has now reached base safely in 18 consecutive games, which is tied with Andrew Tanous for the longest such streak this season … Since 1978, UE is 52-39 against Bradley, which includes a 21-19 mark in Peoria … In league play, the Aces own a 46-30 mark against the Braves … In that timespan, the Aces are 253-228 against schools from the state of Illinois … Since 1987, the Aces are 8-5 on Cinco de Mayo and 222-192 in the month of May.
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