Box Score WOODSTOCK, Ga. -- Bradley tied a season-high with 12 hits and used a five-run first inning to post a 7-6 victory against Alabama State Saturday afternoon at the Phyllis Rafter Memorial. Senior Lindsay Hufeld (Mapleton, Ill./Limeston/Illinois Central) earned the win and fellow senior Julie Sherman (Hickory Hills, Ill./Stagg) extended her hit streak to six games.
Sherman opened the game with a single and later scored on an Alabama State error. Bradley (6-8 overall) took a 2-0 lead when sophomore Mariah Cole (Springfield, Ill./Chatham Glenwood) scored on a wild pitch.
Senior Jackie Roth (Hickory Hills, Ill./Stagg) drove in a run with an RBI single and scored on a double off the bat of freshman Alyson Clemente (Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley), before sophomore Brianne Joseph (Post Falls, Idaho/Post Falls) capped the five-run first with a run-scoring single.
Alabama State (1-9 overall) answered with a run in the bottom of the first. Brehanna Rodrigues drew a walk and stole second before scoring on a double by Sosefina Toilolo.
Bradley loaded the bases in the third after a pair of Alabama State errors and a single by sophomore Alex Chandler (Needles, Calif./Needles). Joseph later drove in her second run of the game with a sacrifice fly to give the Braves a 6-1 advantage.
A BU error in the bottom of the third proved costly as the Bees cut the Bradley lead to 6-3 on a two-run double by Meagan Dixon.
A leadoff walk to open the top of the fourth led to a run for the Braves and gave BU a 7-3 lead. Sophomore Bailiegh Basham (Mattoon, Ill./Mattoon/Lake Land C.C.) drew her team-leading 10th walk of the year to start the inning and scored on Alabama State's fourth error of the game.
Alabama State pulled within a run at 7-6 in the bottom of the fourth after a three-run homer by Toilolo, who drove in four runs, and threatened in the bottom of the fifth after loading the bases with one out. The Braves threw out a runner at the plate and Rodrigues grounded out to end the threat as Bradley took a one-run lead into the final two innings.
Sophomore Madeline Lynch-Crumrine (Sedro-Woolley, Wash./Sedro-Woolley) took over in the circle for Hufeld in the fifth and retired Alabama State in order in the sixth and gave up a two-out single in the seventh to close out the victory.
Hufeld improved to 2-0 on the year with the win, while Lynch-Crumrine earned her second save of the season. Chandler was 3-for-4 at the plate, while Joseph (2-for-3 with 2 RBI), Lynch-Crumrine (2-for-4) and Sherman (2-for-5) all had multi-hit performances.
Bradley closes out play at the Phyllis Rafter Memorial Sunday with a 9:30 a.m. (CST) game against Indiana.