Bradley (10-9 overall) went 2-3 at last week's Colorado State Classic in Ft. Collins, Colo., and heads into the final weekend of play before opening the Missouri Valley Conference schedule March 16 & 17 at Illinois State looking to avenge a pair of losses from earlier this season.

The Braves open the week Thursday night with an 8 p.m. game at Seattle (8-9 overall) in the first meeting between Bradley and the Redhawks. 

Friday's action includes two games as Bradley opens play at the Husky Softball Classic against New Mexico (11-12 overall) at noon (CST).  The Lobos edged the Braves earlier this season, topping BU 3-1 back on Feb. 16 in Albuquerque, N.M., to take a 3-0 lead in the all-time series.

Bradley will face Yale, which opens its 2013 season this week, Friday at 5 p.m. (CST) to close out the first day of tournament play.  Yale won the only previous meeting, topping the Braves in a game in Florida during the 1997 season. 

Ohio (11-3 overall) and Bradley will play for the first time since BU won a pair of games from the Bobcats in Louisville, Ky., during the 2009 season when the team's meet Saturday in a 5 p.m. (CST) contest. 

The Braves conclude the Husky Classic Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (CST) against 16th-ranked Washington (14-5 overall) in the second meeting in a little over a week between the two squads.  The Huskies played Bradley last Saturday in Ft. Collins, Colo., scoring three runs in the top of the seventh to pull out a 6-3 win against BU. 

The trip to the Pacific Northwest will be homecoming for several Bradley players, including junior Madeline Lynch-Crumrine (Sedro-Woolley, Wash./Sedro-Woolley), who is the second player in program history from the state of Washington.  Bradley's first foreign-born player junior, Marina Groenewegen (Surrey, British Columbia/Elgin Park Secondary/Southern Idaho) is also from the area, along with sophomore Verita Richardson (Lake Oswego, Ore./Lake Oswego) and junior Brianne Joseph (Post Falls, Idaho/Post Falls).

Lynch-Crumrine notched her 200th career strikeout last weekend and enters the weekend needing 11 strikeouts to move up three spots into eighth on Bradley's career strikeout list.  She is also closing in on becoming the eighth player in school history with 400 career innings, needing 5.1 innings to reach the 400-inning mark. 

Bradley has 10 wins before the start of Missouri Valley Conference play for the second consecutive year and with seven games remaining before the league opener at Illinois State March 16, has a chance to have 11 or more victories before conference play for the first time since opening the 2007 season with an 11-3 record.  The Braves have not had 12 or more wins before MVC play since 1997 (14-14). 

Following the weekend trip to Seattle, Bradley will play a mid-week doubleheader at Saint Louis on Wednesday, March 13.