PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley softball team will play its earliest conference opener since 2009 when the Braves travel to Springfield, Mo., for a three-game series at Missouri State Saturday and Sunday.
Bradley (9-14 overall) will face Missouri State (13-7 overall) in the first conference series of the year for the first time since 1999 and will open Valley play with a series in Springfield, Mo., for the first time since 1990. The Braves took two of three games from the Bears last trip to Springfield, Mo., in 2012 and Bradley is 3-4 in the last seven games against Missouri State.
The series starts Saturday with a noon doubleheader at Killian Stadium and will wrap up Sunday with a single game at noon. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for all three games and subscription video streams will be available through the Missouri State's Bear All-Access at MissouriStateBears.com
After splitting four games at last weekend's Razorback Invitational, Bradley is 4-2 in its last six games and 7-6 in its last 13 contests. Missouri State owns a league-best 13-7 record heading into the Bears' home opener Thursday against SIU Edwardsville and the weekend series against the Braves is part of a season-long five-game home stand for MSU.
Junior Alyson Clemente (Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley) has been on a tear lately, hitting .467 (14-for-30) with three doubles, one home run, 11 RBI and 12 runs scored in the last 11 games. During her recent run, she has scored or driven in 22 of the team's 62 runs (35 percent) and boasts a .556 on base percentage. Last trip to Springfield, Mo., Clemente was 4-for-9 with a pair of homers, three RBI and three runs scores. She owns a career .368 batting average (7-for-19) against the Bears.
Bradley has had the leadoff hitter got on bad 45.6 percent of the time this spring and helping lead the BU offensive attack has been senior Brianne Joseph (Post Falls, Idaho/Post Falls). She enters the weekend with a six-game hit streak and owns a team-high 22 hits this spring. Joseph looks to become the first Bradley player to lead the team in hits in back-to-back seasons since Laura Harms in 2003 and 2004. She is one of four players on the roster with 100 career hits and her career hit total of 137 is 13 from breaking into the top 10 in school history.
Senior Alex Chandler (Needles, Calif./Needles) already boasts a career-high walk total with 17 base on balls and is one of four Bradley players to rank in the top 10 in the MVC in walks this year. Chandler is just two walks away from pushing her season total into the top 10 season marks in school history and she has moved into fourth in career walks with 55.
Chandler has helped Bradley draw a conference-best 97 walks as a team, which already ranks as the 13th best season total in school history. The Braves are averaging 4.22 free passes per game and need to average just 1.55 walks in the 31 games remaining on the regular season schedule to break the school season mark of 144 walks set in 2009.
After opening league play against Missouri State, Bradley is scheduled to play a pair of non-conference road games against ranked teams. The Braves will play defending national champion and 13th-ranked Oklahoma Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Norman, Okla., before facing 20th-ranked Tulsa Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Tulsa, Okla.
