EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- Senior Alycia Bachkora (Overland Park, Kan./Notre Dame de Sion) belted her team-leading sixth home run of the season, but it wasn't enough to lead the Bradley softball team to a win in the team's final non-conference game of the season as the Braves fell 5-1 Thursday afternoon to SIU Edwardsville at Cougar Field. Bradley fell to 16-23 overall on the season with the loss.

SIU Edwardsville (36-10 overall) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Lindsay Longfellow led off the inning with a walk and Whitney Davis followed with an RBI double. Davis came around to score on a single to right field off the bat of Amanda Pucel to give the Cougars an early 2-0 lead.

A leadoff walk in the bottom of the third inning helped lead to another SIUE run. Lauren Zembruski opened the inning with a base on balls and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Zembruski scored from second on a Longfellow single to push the SIU Edwardsville lead to 3-0.

The Cougars capitalized another leadoff walk in the bottom of the fifth inning. Kasey Schlafke walked to start the frame and pinch runner Lindsey Barron stole second base. Barron scored to give SIUE a 4-0 advantage on a single up the middle by Zembruski.

Bachkora got the Braves on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth inning, with a two-out solo homer to left center to cut the SIU Edwardsville lead to 4-1. The homer was Bachkora's team-best sixth of the year and moved her into a tie for seventh all-time at Bradley with 12 career home runs.

SIU Edwardsville answered with a homer of its own in the bottom of the sixth inning. Chaleen Rumpf belted a one-out solo homer to left field to push the SIUE lead to 5-1. Kaitlin Colosimo retired the Braves in order in the seventh to close out the 5-1 SIUE victory. Colosimo struck out four and walked none in the complete-game four-hit win to improve to 17-4 on the season.

Junior Amanda Clack (Hillsboro, Mo./Hillsboro) collected one of Bradley's four hits in the contest and suffered the loss in the circle for the Braves to fall to 3-6 on the year. Clack walked five and struck out two in five innings of work. Senior Ashley Birdsong pitched the sixth inning for Bradley, striking out three while surrendering one run.

The Braves close out a four-game road swing this weekend with a three-game series at Southern Illinois. Bradley opens the series against the Salukis Saturday with a noon doubleheader and closes out the set with a single game on Sunday at noon in Carbondale, Ill.a