PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Softball will wrap up the regular season on the road for the second straight year and just the third time in the last 11 years this weekend with a three-game series at Evansville. The Braves and Purple Aces will play a noon doubleheader Saturday before closing out the 2015 regular-season slate Sunday with a single game at noon.
After taking two of three games from league-leading Drake this past weekend, Bradley (19-31 overall, 12-12 MVC) enters the final weekend of the regular season eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference standings, but just one game in the win column behind third-place Northern Iowa (13-9 MVC). The Braves are two full games back of fourth-place Wichita State (14-10) as the teams jockey for position in next week's MVC Tournament which will be held in Wichita, Kan.
Bradley has a four-game win streak in the series with Evansville and the Braves have won six of the last eight matchups with the Aces overall. In fact, Bradley has won the regular-season series in three of the last four years and has an 8-4 record against UE during that stretch. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for all three games in the series.
Sunday's doubleheader sweep of Drake pushed Bradley's conference win total to 12, three short of the school record of 15 set last year. The Braves will try to post a winning conference record in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1984-87. Bradley has consecutive seasons with 12 or more league wins for the first time in school history and the team's 46 Valley wins over the last four years are the most in a four-span for the Braves.
The weekend trip to Evansville marks just the second time Bradley will leave the state of Illinois since the March 6-8 trip to Orlando, Fla., for the UCF Knights Invitational. The Braves played 18 of the last 23 games at Laura Bradley Park and 24 of the last 27 games in the state of Illinois.
Freshman Erika Hansen (Fillmore, Calif./Moorpark) brings a 10-game hit streak into the weekend series at Evansville and collected her conference-best 19th double of the year Sunday. Her 19 doubles are the most in the MVC since 2000 and tied for the sixth-best season total in Valley history. Hansen and fellow freshman Maria Schroeder (Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich) tied the Bradley freshman record over the weekend, each scoring their 30th run of the year Sunday against Drake.
Sophomore Kelly Kapp (Freeburg, Ill./Gibault Catholic) stole six bases in five games last week to push her stolen base total to 27. Kapp's 64 hits this season rank second in the MVC and are the most by a Brave since Laura Harms had 73 hits in 2004. In addition, her 27 steals are the third most in school history. Kapp has swiped 15 bases in Valley play for the third-highest steal total in MVC play behind the league record of 18 set by Missouri State's Kate Madden in 1996 and matched last year by Drake's Amy Pierce.
Senior Shannon King (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty) broke the Bradley record for career games played Sunday in the final home game of her career. King's 211 games played, topped the previous mark held by Kim Suffield (1997-2000). She enters the Evansville series with 153 hits, one behind Amy Fouts for 10th in school history.
Sophomore Jaelen Hull (Clifton, Ill./Bishop McNamara) was named MVC Pitcher of the Week earlier this week after she went 2-0 with a save and 1.27 ERA in three outings. She is 4-2 with a save and 2.84 ERA in MVC play this season.
The Braves will head to Wichita, Kan., for the single-elimination Missouri Valley Conference Tournament May 7-9 after the weekend trek to Evansville. The tournament begins next Thursday with the #8 seed facing the #5 seed at 11 a.m.
