PEORIA, Ill. -- A midweek trip to Normal, Ill., is up next for Bradley Softball, with the Braves facing I-74 rival and league-leading Illinois State Wednesday in a 5 p.m. doubleheader to wrap up a five-game Missouri Valley Conference road swing.
Bradley (19-23 overall, 5-10 MVC) took two of three games from Illinois State (22-17 overall, 12-3 MVC) last year and the Braves have won at least one game in the series with the Redbirds in each of the past three seasons. After Wednesday's doubleheader at Illinois State the teams will wrap up the three-game series next Tuesday (April 25) with a 4 p.m. game at Petersen Hotels Field at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.
Wednesday's doubleheader will be available on ESPN3 as part of The Valley On ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. In addition, BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for both contests.
Three of Bradley's last four games have been one-run contests after Northern Iowa had a pair of walk-off, one-run victories this past weekend. In fact three of Bradley's five MVC victories this season have been one-run decisions and six of 15 Valley contests have had a final margin of one run. The Braves are 6-6 in one-run games in 2017 and need just one more one-run victory for the team's highest win total since finishing the 2014 campaign with a 7-9 record in one-run games. The last time Bradley had a .500 record or better in one-run games was 2013 (7-7).
The Braves still have five road games remaining on the regular-season schedule, but Bradley won't have to travel much for those contests which consist of Wednesday's doubleheader at Illinois State and a three-game series at Loyola (April 29 & 30). Bradley will play the final 12 regular-season games and the MVC Tournament (hosted by Illinois State) in the state of Illinois with the Braves slated to play seven of the final 10 regular-season games at Petersen Hotels Field at the Louisville Slugger Complex. The six home games to date for Bradley are the fewest in the MVC this season and the Braves will finish the season with the team's fewest home contests since 2014 (11).
Wednesday's doubleheader wraps up a stretch of nine consecutive games against teams ranked in the top 100 of the RPI as of April 16. Illinois State, which has a one-game lead in the MVC standings, is ranked 54th in the latest RPI. Bradley has a conference-leading 22 games against teams in the top 100 in the RPI. Overall, 32 of Bradley's 42 outings in 2017 have been against teams in the top half of the RPI.
Senior
Kelly Kapp was 6-for-10 last weekend at Northern Iowa to raise her conference-leading batting average to .475. She now has 222 career hits as she climbed into 14th on the MVC career hits list. Kapp needs three hits to pass Jen Feldmeier (SIU) and Heather Stella (Illinois St.) for 12th in league history. Kapp already has more hits this season (67) than she did in 2016 and owns three of the top seven season hit totals in school history. In addition, she has scored 37 runs in each of the last three seasons and needs three runs to push her career total among the top 20 in MVC history.
Following the midweek doubleheader at Illinois State Bradley will host preseason MVC favorite Drake for a three-game weekend series. The Braves and Bulldogs will play a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader Saturday at Petersen Hotels Field at the Louisville Slugger Complex before wrapping up the series Sunday with a single game at 11 a.m.
