PEORIA, Ill. -- First-year Bradley softball head coach Buddy Foster will have the opportunity no other coach in program history had, opening a season at home, as the Braves will host the Bradley Invite Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Dragon's Dome in Pekin, Ill., to open the 2006 season.
Bradley will welcome Purdue, Northern Illinois, Western Illinois, IUPUI and Missouri Valley Conference foe Northern Iowa to Pekin, Ill., for this weekend's tournament. Action begins Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. when Northern Illinois plays Northern Iowa. Bradley will face Western Illinois at 5 p.m. in the season opener for both teams and the first day of tournament action concludes with IUPUI playing Purdue at 7 p.m.
"We are very excited to be able to open the season at home," Foster said. "After a month or so of practice it's time to play some games and see how much we have progressed from the fall. We've made some major improvements with our pitching and defense and the team is excited to get the season under way finally."
The tournament will continue with six games on Saturday beginning at 9:30 a.m. with Western Illinois playing Northern Iowa. Bradley will face instate foe Northern Illinois at 1 p.m. and IUPUI at 2:45 p.m. Other games slated for Saturday include Western Illinois vs. Purdue at 11:15 a.m., Northern Iowa vs. Purdue at 4:30 p.m. and Northern Illinois vs. IUPUI at 6:15 p.m.
Tournament play concludes Sunday with the fifth-place game at 10 a.m. and will be followed by the third-place game at noon and championship at 2 p.m. Admission to the tournament will be $5 for adults and $2 for children and seniors for each day. All session tickets will be available at the Bradley Ticket Office for a cost of $10.
Sophomore utility player Trish Kowalewski earned pre-season All-Missouri Valley Conference honors and is the Braves top returning hitter from last year after leading the team in batting average (.326), doubles (13) and home runs (7). Bradley returns 13 of 17 letterwinners from last year's team, including all three pitchers.
