PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley will welcome Southern Illinois for a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series beginning Friday with a 2 p.m. doubleheader at Laura Bradley Park.  The Braves and Salukis will close out the three-game set Saturday with a noon contest, which will be followed by a post-game Easter Egg hunt.

Both teams are coming off midweek losses as Bradley's rally attempt at Loyola fell short in a 4-2 setback, while Evansville handed Southern Illinois its first conference loss of the year with a 2-1 win in Evansville, Ind.  Picked to finish second in the preseason coaches' poll, the Salukis are 21-12 overall and fourth in the league standings with a 6-1 conference mark.

Bradley (11-15 overall, 2-3 MVC) has played the fewest home games in the conference (2), but is scheduled to play nine of 17 games in the month of April at home.  In fact, five of the next six games are scheduled to be played at Laura Bradley Park beginning with this weekend's series against SIU.  The Braves enter the weekend in seventh place in the Valley standings.

Senior Janay Mitchell (Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove South) has been swinging a hot bat for BU and owns a six-game hit streak after a 1-for-3 effort at Loyola Wednesday.  She is hitting .444 (8-for-18) with three runs and RBI and four stolen bases during her current six-game streak.  Freshman Taylor Cox (Loveland, Colo./Andover [Kan.]) is hitting .615 in Missouri Valley Conference play and has reached base safely in each of the last six contests.  Cox owns a .533 batting average (8-for-15) over the last six outings and also boasts a .611 on base percentage during that same span.

A free audio stream and subscription video stream are available for all three games of the series at www.BradleyBraves.com