THE RUNDOWN
No. 1 seed DBU defeated No. 3 seed Bradley, 10-5 in a rain-soaked resumption of the MVC Tournament on Friday.  After the Patriots claimed a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning on Thursday, the game was postponed due to lightning. The DBU bats wasted little time by responding on Friday, pushing three across in the seventh and eighth innings behind a seven-RBI performance from River Town. With the win, the Patriots advance to the winner's bracket and will resume action on Saturday.
 
Bradley struck first with single runs in the third and fifth frames, but as the Carbondale sky began to threaten, so did the Patriots' offense as a two-run double by Town tied the game followed by a Bradley error and an RBI on a sacrifice fly from Andres Sosa helped DBU carry a 4-2 lead through five-and-a-half innings into Thursday's lightning delay. Throughout the remainder of the evening, scattered lightning strikes would ultimately force the game to be paused and resumed Friday morning.
 
Bradley would work a 1-2-3 inning in the Patriots' sixth before the DBU offense found its groove in the seventh. A two-RBI blast down the right-field line by River Town jump-started the Patriot offense and extended the lead to 6-2. One batter later, Jackson Glenn belted a solo shot just inside the fould pole in left to extend the lead to five.
 
Peyton Sherlin, who began the day on the rain-soaked mound, silenced the Braves' bats by allowing no hits through two innings of work.
 
The DBU offense continued to apply the pressure in the eighth as Town corked another home run, this time a three-run blast over the right field wall to score Blayne Jones and Christian Boulware, who had both reached on walks against a struggling Jed Moscot.
 
A three-run Bradley blast in the top of the ninth would give the Braves a puncher's chance. However, the deficit and the elements proved insurmountable as DBU earned its third win of the season versus the Braves and eliminated Bradley from the tournament.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- DBU is now 23-7 in their 30 games in the MVC Tournament since joining the league in 2014.
- With the win, the Patriots are one victory away from reaching Sunday's championship game.
- Rhett Kouba's 2.21 ERA currently ranks as the fifth-best ERA in a single-season in DBU's Division I era.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
7 - The seven RBIs from River Town are the most by a player in the MVC Tournament since Matt Duce drove in seven runs against Southern Illinois on May 26, 2016.
17 - Jackson Glenn's 17 home run are tied with Duncan MCalpine (2013) and Ryan Enos (2009) for the seventh-most home runs in the program's DI era.
25 - Jace Grady saw his career-high streak of reaching base safely in 25 straight games come to an end.
 
UP NEXT
DBU will face the winner of Indiana State and Southern Illinois on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at Itchy Jones Stadium.