PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley will play the first of two mid-week non-conference games on the 2017 schedule Wednesday when the Braves travel to Champaign, Ill., for a 6 p.m. against Illinois in the first meeting between the two teams since 2011.
 
Wednesday's outing against Illinois (16-8 overall) is the second game this season against a Big Ten Conference foe for Bradley (15-13 overall) and marks the second to last non-conference game on the 2017 slate for the Braves, who are scheduled to play at SIU Edwardsville April 4. 
 
A free video stream will be offered through the Illinois Athletics website (http://www.fightingillini.com/watch/?Live=1011&type=Live) and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to both the video stream and live stats.
 
Bradley rallied for two runs in the top of the seventh of Sunday's Missouri Valley Conference series finale at Southern Illinois to top the Salukis 6-5 for the fifth one-run game in the last 11 outings and eighth one-run contest of the season. 
 
Illinois is 10-3 in its last 13 games heading into a Tuesday afternoon home doubleheader against Illinois-Chicago.  Bradley is scheduled to play 17 of the final 26 games of the 2017 regular season against teams currently ranked in the top 100 in the RPI, with Illinois checking in at #22 in the latest NCAA RPI report. 
 
Senior Kelly Kapp had two hits in each of the three games at Southern Illinois last weekend to raise her batting average to .485 (16th in the nation).  Kapp is currently second in the nation in stolen bases with 33 and has moved into second in Missouri Valley Conference history with 90 career steals.  Only two MVC teams have more stolen bases than Kapp in 2017 and she is three from breaking the MVC career mark of 92.  She enters Wednesday's game with a season-best 14-game hit streak, hitting .511 with 17 stolen bases and 15 runs during that stretch.
 
Junior Maria Schroeder owns a career-best eight-game hit streak of her own and is hitting .462 (12-for-26) with eight RBI over that time.  The first player in program history to drive in 25 or more runs in three consecutive seasons, Schroeder has scored or driven in 41 percent of Bradley runs in the last 17 games.  Her 29 RBI are tied for the league lead and are already four more than she had in 2016. 
 
Senior Caitlyn McCarron continues to lead Bradley with a .488 batting average and had one of the biggest hits of the season Sunday with her two-run, seventh-inning homer propelling the Braves to the 6-5 win over Southern Illinois.  McCarron is 15th in the nation in batting average through March 19 with her 39 hits this spring matching the number of at bats she had last year.  Sixteen of her last 32 hits have gone for extra bases.
 
In the circle, senior Jaelen Hull matched her career high with her seventh victory of the year as she came out of the bullpen to earn the win Sunday at SIU.  Hull is 6-1 with three saves and a 1.81 ERA in her last 13 appearances, while holding teams to a .204 batting average.  Only two of the 20 hits against Hull have been extra-base hits during that stretch. 
 
Following the midweek game at Illinois, Bradley will close out a stretch of 32 road or neutral site games to start the 2017 season with a three-game series at Evansville Saturday and Sunday.