PEORIA, Ill. -- Weather continues to impact the Bradley softball schedule, forcing a change in the Braves' weekend schedule for the third consecutive week and fifth time in the last seven weekends. Originally scheduled to play a three-game series at Evansville Saturday and Sunday, BU will now play the Purple Aces Friday and Saturday due to inclement weather forecast for the Evansville, Ind., area for Sunday.
The series will begin Friday night with a single game at 8 p.m. and conclude with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday at Evansville's Cooper Stadium.
The weekend series will play a big factor in determining one of the final spots in the upcoming eight-team State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament May 12-14 in Springfield, Mo. Evansville (11-37 overall, 5-16 MVC) is currently eighth in the standings, two wins ahead of ninth-place Bradley (10-37 overall, 3-16 MVC) for what would be the final spot in the tournament field. Five of the eight spots have been secured and the Braves close the regular season with three-game series against both the seventh-place (Wichita State) and eighth-place (Evansville) teams in the standings.
Bradley and Evansville split a pair of games last season in Peoria and the series between the Braves and Purple Aces has been impacted by weather each of the last two seasons. Bradley and Evansville have not played all three games in the regular-season series since 2008 and have completed the three-game set in just one of the last four seasons.
The weekend series also marks the final road games of the season for the Braves, who close the regular season out at home with a three-game series against Wichita State May 7 & 8 at Laura Bradley Park.
Senior Kate Singler (Witt, Ill./Nokomis/Heartland C.C.) has been swinging a hot bat for BU, collecting four of her team-leading eight home runs in the last five games. In fact, four of Singler's last five hits have left the yard and her eight home runs this season put her in a tie for the second most home runs in a season by a Brave. Singler also moved into a tie for ninth in career home runs Wednesday, hitting her 12th career homer.
Junior Julie Sherman (Hickory Hills, Ill./Stagg) brings a nine-game hit streak into the weekend series with the Purple Aces and has raised her team-leading batting average to .340. Senior Brittany Fairbairn (Lombard, Ill./Glenbard East/Kankakee C.C.) owns an eight-game hit streak and is one hit away from becoming the first Bradley player with 50 hits in a season since Laura Harms in 2004.
Not to be outdone, freshman Brianne Joseph (Post Falls, Idaho/Post Falls) is hitting .407 (11-for-27) over the last eight games and was 4-for-7 at the plate in Wednesday's doubleheader at Northern Iowa.
A link to live stats for all three games of the series at Evansville will be available at BradleyBraves.com
