PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Softball will close out the home portion of the 2016 regular-season schedule with a three-game series against Loyola with the teams adjusting the schedule for the weekend series due to forecasted inclement weather.
The Braves and Ramblers were slated to play Saturday and Sunday at Laura Bradley Park, but will now open the series Friday with a 5:30 p.m. doubleheader at Illinois Central College in East Peoria. The series will move back to Laura Bradley Park for the final game Saturday at noon.
Bradley (15-26 overall, 9-11 MVC) split a pair of games at I-74 rival Illinois State Tuesday to claim the regular-season series (2-1) from the Redbirds for the first time since 1987. The Braves enter the weekend sixth in the MVC standings at 9-11, one game behind fifth-place Evansville and two and a half games back of fourth-place Southern Illinois.
Loyola (20-23 overall, 4-14 MVC) split a pair of midweek games, earning a 1-0, nine-inning home victory over Indiana State Tuesday and suffering a 9-1 loss at Northwestern Wednesday. The Ramblers are 10th in the Valley standings and need to earn at least one victory this weekend to have a chance to earn a spot in the upcoming MVC Tournament which will be held May 12-14 in Carbondale, Ill.
A free video stream of Saturday's game will be available at https://www.youtube.com/user/schefftech/live and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for all three contests.
Bradley seniors Amanda Barna, Alyson Clemente, Dani Cowan, Kendall Duffy, Rachel Huggins and Kathryn Spenn will be recognized a pre-game ceremony Saturday as the group plays the final home game of their careers. The Braves have earned 47 MVC victories during their time on The Hilltop with the group needing three more wins in the team's final six outings for the most conference wins in a four-year span in school history.
Huggins provided a big hit for the Braves in Tuesday's 4-1 victory at Illinois State, belting a three-run, walk-off homer. In addition to adding on to her school season record home run total (12), she notched her eighth homer in Valley play to tie the school mark for home runs in MVC action set by Alycia Bachkora in 2009.
Twenty-two of Huggins' team-best 36 RBI have come in conference play with her total two short of the Bradley season record for RBI in conference games. The walk-off home run by Huggins was just the second walk-off homer by a Brave since 2007 and first walk-off shot of three runs or more since Jessie Musgrove had a three-run walk-off dinger against Drake on March 31, 2007.
Freshman Katie Habryle (Covington, Wash./Kentlake) has also gotten into the home run act, tallying four of her five homers in conference games. She is just the fourth Bradley freshman with five or more homers, joining a group which includes Trish Kowalewski (seven in 2005), Jacqueline Vitale (six in 2006) and teammate Maria Schroeder (five in 2015).
Clemente and Duffy enter the final home series of the career as two of the most experienced players in program history. Duffy, who is a finalist for the 2016 Orborn Award, is fifth all-time in games played at 206 and is eighth in school history with 84 career RBI. In addition, Duffy is tied for 10th in career walks (50) and ninth in doubles (27) along with ranking sixth in career assists (364).
Most of Duffy's assists in her career have resulted in a large portion of Clemente's school record 1,368 career putouts. Bradley's career home run leader, Clemente is seventh in games played on The Hilltop at 203 and is among Bradley's career top 10 in walks (3rd - 65), RBI (4th - 108), hits (T6th - 176), runs (4th - 98) and doubles (4th - 34).
After wrapping up the home schedule, the Braves will head to Des Moines, Iowa, to finish the regular-season schedule with a three-game series at defending MVC regular-season champion Drake May 7 & 8.
