PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley softball team will make its home debut after playing the first 27 games of the season away from home Saturday when the Braves open a three-game series against Missouri State with a noon doubleheader at Laura Bradley Park. The three-game set concludes Sunday with a single game at noon.
Saturday's doubleheader against Missouri State will mark the earliest home opener for Bradley since playing Creighton at Laura Bradley Park on March 17, 2012. The Braves have won the first home game of the year each of the past two seasons and are 5-4 in home openers over the last nine year. Overall, Bradley owns a 19-17 record in home openers and will face Missouri State in the first conference home series of the year for the first time since 2007.
BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for all three games and a free video stream will be available through Bradley All-Access.
The three-game home series opens a stretch in which Bradley will play seven of the next 10 games at Laura Bradley Park and 15 of the next 23 games at home. Bradley took three of four games from Missouri State last year, including a second round MVC Tournament game, and the Braves have won four of the last five from the Lady Bears.
Bradley looks to rebound from a 6-5 loss at SIU Edwardsville Tuesday, after three BU errors helped lead to five unearned runs. Tuesday's loss was Bradley's third loss in the last four games by one run. In fact, five of the last seven games have been decided by one run and six of the last seven have either been a one-run contest or gone to extra innings. Over the last 17 games, 10 have needed extra innings or been one-run decisions.
Freshman Erika Hansen (Fillmore, Calif./Moorpark) continued her hot hitting with a 3-for-4 effort at SIU Edwardsville Tuesday, which included two doubles and three RBI. Hansen now has 10 doubles on the year to tie for the 10th best season total in school history and she is one walk from pushing her season walk total in Bradley's top 10.
With Tuesday's game marking the halfway point of the regular-season schedule, Hansen is already one of just three players in program history to collect 15 runs, 10 doubles, 20 RBI and 20 or more walks in a season. She joined Alex Chandler (2014) and Julie Jehle (1995) as the only Braves to reach those marks in the same season.
Sophomore Kelly Kapp (Freeburg, Ill./Gibault Catholic) also continues to swing a hot bat, extending her career-best hit streak to 11 games with a 2-for-4 performance Tuesday at SIU Edwardsville. Kapp's 11-game hit streak is the longest at Bradley since 2011 and she has a chance to post the first hit streak of 12 or more games on The Hilltop since at least the 1997 season.
After opening the season 4-for-16, Kapp has collected at least one hit in 20 of the last 21 games and owns a .386 batting average during that stretch. She leads the MVC with 13 stolen bases and her 37 hits are tied for the most in the league through Tuesday.
Bradley will hit the road again after the three-game home stand and head to Chicago for a three-game series at Loyola March 28 & 29 in a rematch of last year's MVC Tournament Championship game.
