PEORIA, ILLINOIS (June 2, 2022) — Five members of the Bradley baseball team were honored on the All-Missouri Valley Conference Teams. Junior first baseman Connor O'Brien earned first-team accolades and freshman pitcher Jacob Kisting was named to the second team, while senior pitcher Nick King, senior catcher Keaton Rice and sophomore outfielder Ryan Vogel all received honorable mention.
O'Brien becomes the first player in school history to earn first-team All-Valley honors three times during his career — also receiving the award in 2019 and 2021.
The junior leads the Missouri Valley Conference with both a .394 batting average - 20 points ahead of the league's second-ranked batter — and 1.57 hits per game, ranking 23rd and 21st nationally. O'Brien's .394 average also currently ranks fifth in the program's record book as he is on pace to become just the fourth player in school history to lead the Valley. O'Brien has also set career highs with ten home runs, fourteen doubles, 44 runs scored, and 44 RBIs during his stand-out junior campaign.
Kisting is only the second Bradley freshman and the first since Doug Robertson in 1994 to land one of the two All-Missouri Valley Conference teams as a starting-pitcher. The rookie leads Bradley with six wins on the mound, posting a 4.33 earned-run average. Kisting finished the regular season ranked tenth in the Valley in ERA, fourth with an opposing batting average of .235, and fifth with 78 strike-outs. His six wins are the most by a BU rookie since 2007, while ranking fourteenth nationally among freshmen.
King earned All-Valley honors for the first time in the senior's collegiate career. He made nineteen appearances during the 2022 season with eight starting assignments, posting a 5-3 record with a 3.50 earned-run average. The two-time Valley Pitcher of the Week, King ranks fourth in the conference in ERA, sixth with 77 strike-outs, and first by allowing opponents to hit just .207 against him. The senior was at his best-in-league play — posting a 4-0 record with a 2.88 ERA in six appearances.
Rice joins O'Brien as one of just ten BU players to collect all-conference honors three times during his career after earning second-team accolades in 2018 and 2019. The school's record-holder with sixty career base-runners caught stealing and with 122 career base-on balls, Rice enjoyed a career year at the plate. The senior is hitting .319, and leads Bradley plus all Valley catchers with 27 extra-base hits — collecting 21 doubles, five home-runs, and one triple. Overall, his 21 doubles are the most by a Brave since 2016 as he currently ranks sixth nationally with 0.49 doubles per game (first in the country among catchers).
Vogel rounded out Bradley's all-conference honorees as the sophomore received the honor for the first time during his career. The team's lead-off hitter recorded a .311 batting average and led the Braves with 47 runs scored in 2022 — ranking sixth in the Valley. He also added five home-runs, two triples, and eleven doubles with twenty RBIs.
Bradley University is a top-ranked, private university in Peoria, Illinois, offering nearly 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students opportunities, choices, and resources to build their futures. Innovation, action, and collaboration drive Bradley students to generate ideas and create solutions that remake the world around them. Our comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate academic programs includes business, communications, education, engineering, fine arts, health sciences, liberal arts and sciences, and technology.
