PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Softball will play its final road games on the 2017 regular-season schedule this weekend when the Braves travel to Chicago for a critical three-game series against Loyola Saturday and Sunday. 
 
The weekend trip to Chicago will be Bradley's first games in the Windy City since the Braves played a midweek game at Illinois-Chicago during the 2013 campaign.  Bradley and Loyola are slated to play a noon doubleheader Saturday at Loyola Softball Park before wrapping up the series Sunday with a single game at 11 a.m.
 
All three games of the weekend series 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 all three contests.
 
Loyola (24-21 overall, 7-13 MVC) sits two games ahead of Bradley in the win column heading into a Wednesday afternoon game at Indiana State.  The Braves (19-29 overal, 5-16 MVC) look to keep pace with the Ramblers for one of the final spots in the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Championship, which will be held May 11-13 in Normal, Ill.
 
Bradley is 9-1 against Loyola since the Ramblers joined the MVC for the 2014 season and the Braves own a 21-10 overall lead in the all-time series.  Bradley has won seven consecutive games in the series dating back to a 4-3, eight-inning Loyola win on April 6, 2014 in the final regular-season meeting that year. 
 
The trip to Chicago is a rare one for Bradley, which is the last MVC team to play a road series against Loyola.  The 2015 regular-season series was relocated to Peoria from Chicago due to weather and the teams have played nine of 10 contests since 2014 in Peoria with the lone exception the 2014 MVC Tournament Championship game which was played at Illinois State.  The Braves are 1-1 in Chicago under ninth-year head coach Amy Hayes, pulling out a 1-0 victory in eight innings at UIC in 2013 and suffering a non-conference loss at Loyola (4-2) in 2010. 
 
Senior Jaelen Hull has had a great deal of success in her career against Loyola, boasting a 5-0 record with a 0.70 ERA in five career appearances.  Hull has tossed a complete game shutout in two of her last three outings against the Ramblers.  In 30.0 career innings vs. Loyola, she has struck out 25 and walked just five while limiting hitters to a .195 batting average.  Of the 22 hits surrendered by Hull to Loyola, only one has gone for extra bases (a double). 
 
Freshman Kealia Wysocki hit her first career triple in Tuesday's game against I-74 Illinois State and Bradley now has a conference-leading 13 triples on the season.  The Braves have four triples in the last six games and the teams 13 triples are the most since 1997.  Wysocki is hitting .450 over the last seven games. 
 
Senior Kelly Kapp continues her assault on the Bradley and MVC record books.  Her league-best 73 hits are just two from pushing her season total among the top 10 in Valley history and she is three hits from tying her school season hits record of 76 set as a sophomore in 2015.  Kapp has reached base safely in 43 of 48 games this spring and has 22 multi-hit games in 2017. 
 
Following the weekend road series, Bradley will finish the 2017 regular-season slate with a three-game home series against Indiana State May 6 & 7 at Petersen Hotels Field at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.