PEORIA (Interstat) — Mason Lei pitched six innings of no-hit ball and Jake Busson and Thomas Curry each homered as Illinois-Chicago defeated Bradley 8-3 on Thursday in a Missouri Valley Conference game.

The Flames improved to 23-26-1 while the Braves fell to 10-44-1.

Illinois-Chicago jumped ahead in the first inning. Lucas Smith doubled to right-center with two outs and Busson followed by crushing a home run to left field, giving the Flames a 2-0 lead.

Curry added a solo home run down the left-field line in the third inning to push the lead to 3-0.

Bradley answered in the bottom of the third when Angelo Aleman homered to left to cut the lead to 3-1.

The Flames broke the game open in the fourth. Colin Husko singled, Sean Cody walked and Alexander Wright singled to load the bases. Will Flanigan walked to force in a run, and then Ashton Kampa cleared the bases with a double to right-center, scoring three runs and making it 7-1.

Bradley got a run back in the fifth. Aleman singled, moved to second on a single by Landon Lowe and scored on a single by Michael Quick to make it 7-2.

Illinois-Chicago added an insurance run in the ninth. Alexander Wright singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Vidal Colon.

Bradley mounted a rally in the bottom of the ninth. Aleman singled and pinch runner River Lindsey moved to second on a single by Sohrab Rezaei. After a groundout, Landon Lowe hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Lindsey to make it 8-3. Michael Quick then grounded out to end the game.

Lei earned the win, allowing two earned runs on zero hits over six innings while striking out six. He walked three and hit one batter. In his previous two starts, Lei had thrown seven shutout innings against Illinois State and seven no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts at Evansville.

Jake Jakubowski pitched two hitless innings of relief, striking out two. Mark Eddie allowed one run in the ninth inning.

Gavin Thompson took the loss for Bradley, allowing one earned run on three hits over 4 2/3 innings with two strikeouts. Drew Politte pitched the ninth, allowing one earned run on two hits.

Busson finished 1 for 4 with two RBIs. Curry was 1 for 5 with an RBI. Kampa went 2 for 4 with three RBIs. Aleman led Bradley with a 3-for-4 day that included a home run and an RBI. Quick was 2 for 5 with an RBI.

The two teams meet again Friday and Saturday in Peoria.

Interstat’s game simulator projected a final score of Illinois-Chicago 6, Bradley 2, and Interstat’s ELO system gave the Flames a 67.50 percent probability to win.