PEORIA, Ill. -- After heading East each of the last two weekends, Bradley Softball will venture to the Pacific Northwest for the Husky Classic in Seattle, Wash., Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Washington and Seattle will co-host the event at their home fields with the Braves playing the early games on both Friday and Saturday at Washington's Husky Softball Stadium with the other three games at Seattle's Logan Field.
Bradley is making the second trip in program history to the state of Washington after playing in the 2013 Husky Classic, where the Braves posted a 2-2 record with wins against Yale and Ohio. Sophomore Taylor Morales (Spokane, Wash./University) and freshman Katie Habryle (Covington, Wash./Kentlake) will be playing in their home state for the first time in their collegiate careers and are the third and fourth players in program history from the Evergreen State.
The Braves open the Husky Classic Friday at 3:30 p.m. (CST) with the first of two games against Kent State at the University of Washington. Bradley and Kent State have split four all-time meetings, including splitting a pair of games at last year's UCF Knights Invitational in Orlando, Fla.
Friday's action also includes a rematch at tournament-host Seattle at 8 p.m. (CST). Bradley fell to the Redhawks back on Feb. 12 at the season-opening Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz., and trail the all-time series 2-1.
Another rematch will open Saturday's play as the Braves face Boise State at 1:15 p.m. (CST) at Washington's Husky Stadium. Bradley topped the Broncos 4-2 on Feb. 13 in Tempe, Ariz., for the first win of the season in the only previous meeting between the two teams.
The first meeting the Braves and Montana will close out Saturday's play at 8 p.m. (CST) back on Seattle's campus. Bradley wraps up the weekend Sunday with an 11 a.m. (CST) rematch against Kent State at Seattle.
Seniors Alyson Clemente (Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley) and Rachel Huggins (Mt. Zion, Ill./Mt. Zion) are both tied for the most home runs in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2016 with four dingers. Clemente has hit seven home runs in her last 20 games dating back to the 2014 season and tied the Bradley career home run record of 16 shared by Alycia Bachkora (2006-09) and Brittany Mynsberge (2006-09). The pair has helped the Braves slug 12 home runs this season, a total the 2015 squad didn't reach until the final day of March.
Clemente is also second in the MVC with 15 RBI and is poised to climb on Bradley's career RBI list. She enters the weekend seventh all-time with 89 RBI and needs to drive in four to pass Joanna Pettit for sixth. In addition, Clemente has moved into a tie for eighth with 26 career doubles and her 83 runs scored as a Brave are tied for ninth all-time.
Junior Kelly Kapp (Freeburg, Ill./Gibault Catholic) boasted a .538 average at last week's Unconquered Invitational in Tallahassee, Fla., and is now hitting a team-best .592 on the year with 15 runs scored and a league-high 12 stolen bases. After tallying a conference-best 76 hits last spring, Kapp has collected 105 hits since the start of the 2015, which is already tied for the 10th-best total in a two-year period at Bradley.
After the trip to Seattle, Wash., the Braves will head to Cape Girardeau, Mo., for the final weekend of non-conference play where Bradley will play a pair of games against both Eastern Illinois and Southeast Missouri State as part of the Southeast Games March 12 & 13.
