PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley softball team will take on Drake in a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series Saturday and Sunday at Laura Bradley Park with the team's Go Pink, Go Bradley event helping highlight the weekend slate of activities.
The Braves (21-19 overall, 6-7 MVC) play seven of the final 13 games of the 2013 regular season at home beginning with the weekend series with Drake (23-16 overall, 9-4 MVC), which enters the weekend in second in the Missouri Valley Conference standings after taking two of three games from Illinois State over the weekend.
Saturday's noon doubleheader will be Bradley's annual “pink” game to help raise breast cancer awareness. The Braves will wear special pink uniforms for the event and all fans will receive “Red + White = Pink” bracelets. Promotions also include a post-game pink ball toss for prizes and fans will have opportunities to donate to Komen for the Cure. In addition, pink Bradley t-shirts will be on sale and fans will be able to sign up for 2013 Race for the Cure “Team Bradley” as a walker, runner or spirit walker.
Sunday will be Youth League & Community Day with children 13 and younger able to run the bases after the noon contest. A post-game autograph session will follow the final game of the series Sunday, which will also start at noon.
Following the post-game autograph session, the team will hold a youth clinic with proceeds helping benefit the Hult Center of Peoria. The hour-long clinic for children eighth grade or younger costs $15. To register for the clinic contact Bradley Assistant Coach Jennie Shollenberger at jshollenberger@bradley.edu or (309) 677-2565. In addition to the post-game clinic, fans are encouraged to bring school items (pens, crayons, markers, construction paper, pencil, folders) for donation to the Hult Center of Peoria to Sunday's game.
Live stats for all three games will be available at BradleyBraves.com along with a free video stream for all three contests of the series. Saturday's first game will mark the 75th game in the all-time series which dates back to the 1984 season.
Junior Bailiegh Basham (Mattoon, Ill./Mattoon/Lake Land C.C.) has drawn eight walks in her last 14 plate appearances to push her team-leading season walk total to 21. The first player in school history to earn 20 or more base on balls in back-to-back seasons, Basham has moved into a tie for second in career walks at Bradley, despite playing only 88 games at BU, and is currently second in The Valley with a .533 on base percentage this spring.
Fellow junior Madeline Lynch-Crumrine (Sedro-Woolley, Wash./Sedro-Woolley) heads into the weekend with a nine-game hit streak, collecting hits in each of BU's nine games since the end of March. One of three players in the Missouri Valley Conference with 10 or more wins (13) and 20 or more hits (23), her 13 victories and 106 strikeouts this spring are the highest totals by a Bradley pitcher since Ashley Birdsong earned 20 wins and struck out 232 batters in 2009. Lynch-Crumrine is the first Brave to have 10 or more wins in back-to-back seasons since Birdsong had 16 wins in 2006 and followed it up with 20 victories in 2007.
Sunday's 11-3 win at Evansville was Bradley's 21st victory of the year, matching the team's win total from 2012. The Braves need just one victory for the most regular-season wins since 2007 (25) and are five victories short of the highest regular-season win total since 2004 (29).
Bradley leads the MVC with a .292 batting average, which would be the squad's best batting average since posting a school-record .306 in 1994. The Braves are looking to finish the season with a .280 or better average for the first time since 1996 (.281).
Following the weekend series, Bradley will open a five-game road swing with a 2 p.m. doubleheader at Northern Iowa Tuesday in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
