PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley softball team makes its first trip to the state of Tennessee since March 2009, heading to Nashville, Tenn., for four games at the Tiger Invitational Saturday and Sunday.
The Braves (4-6 overall) own a combined 21-6 (.778) record against this weekend's opponents at the Tiger Invitational and will open tournament action Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against IUPUI. Bradley has won five consecutive games against the Jaguars with Saturday's matchup marking the first game between the two schools since 2009.
Saturday's play also includes a 5:30 p.m. tilt against tournament-host Tennessee State. The Braves are 2-0 all-time against Tennessee State after sweeping a doubleheader from the Tigers in Nashville, Tenn., in 2001 in the only prior games in the series.
Bradley faces first-time opponent Morgan State Sunday at 9:30 a.m., before concluding the weekend with a 1:30 p.m. contest against Butler. The Braves have won seven of the last eight meetings with the Bulldogs and own a 9-4 advantage in the all-time series. Sunday's game will be the first in the series since 2007.
Junior Brianne Joseph (Post Falls, Idaho/Post Falls) has helped set the table for a Bradley offense, which is averaging nearly one more run per game (4.30) than it did in 2012 (3.37). Joseph has already matched a career season-high with five walks this spring and has reached base 61.5 percent of the time she has led off an inning this year. She leads the team with six stolen bases, after swiping eight bases last year, and needs two stolen bases to move into BU's top 10 in career steals.
While Joseph has been getting on base, sophomore Alyson Clemente (Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley) has also helped highlight an offensive attack which boasts a .285 batting average. Clemente is hitting a team-best .429 through the first two weekends of play and owns a .643 slugging percentage to go with her team-best .515 on base percentage. Bradley's leader with seven RBI, she has scored or driven in nearly 26 percent of the team's runs this year and has just three strikeouts in 33 plate appearances.
Junior Madeline Lynch-Crumrine (Sedro-Woolley, Wash./Sedro-Woolley) leads the Missouri Valley Conference in strikeouts (35) and innings pitched (51.1), having thrown nearly 83 percent of Bradley's innings this year. Lynch-Crumrine enters the weekend needing just 10 strikeouts to become the 11th player in school history with 200 career strikeouts and is 30.1 innings from reaching 400 career innings.
Fellow junior Bailiegh Basham (Mattoon, Ill./Mattoon/Lake Land C.C.) nears a dubious career record after getting hit by a pitch twice last weekend at the Lobo Classic. Basham is tied for third in school history in hit by pitch and has been plunked a total of 14 times in just 59 career games as a Brave. If she is hit two more times, she will tie the Bradley career hit by pitch mark of 16 shared by Jackie Roth and Christine Cooney.
Following the weekend trip to the Volunteer State, Bradley makes the first trip in program history to Colorado for the Colorado State Classic in Ft. Collins, Colo., March 1-3. The Braves will face Brown, Nebraska-Omaha and 22nd-ranked Washington in addition to playing a pair of games against tournament-host Colorado State.
