PEORIA, Ill. -- For the second consecutive weekend to open the 2019 schedule Bradley Softball will head west with the Braves traveling to Las Cruces, N.M., for the Troy Cox Classic, which will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the New Mexico State Softball Complex.
Bradley (1-4 overall) will play in the Troy Cox Classic for the fourth time and the Braves will be making their fifth trip to the state of New Mexico in the last nine years. The last trip to Las Cruces, N.M. for the 2017 Troy Cox Classic resulted in a 3-2 trip with Bradley picking up wins against Northern Colorado, New Mexico State and Oregon State, while the Braves suffered losses to then 14th-ranked Tennessee and DePaul. Bradley also played in the Troy Cox Classic during the 2015 and 2010 seasons.
BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for all five games of the Troy Cox Classic starting with Friday's 12:30 p.m. (CST) matchup with first-time opponent Montana (1-4 overall). The Braves face tournament-host New Mexico State (4-0 overall) Friday at 7 p.m. (CST), while Saturday's action gets underway with a 12:30 p.m. (CST) contest against Texas State (2-2 overall). Bradley faces San Jose State (3-3 overall) Saturday at 7 p.m. (CST), before concluding the weekend tournament Sunday with a noon (CST) rematch with New Mexico State.
Bradley has previously faced three of the four opponents at the Troy Cox Classic, owning a 4-4 record in those games. Montana is the first of just two first-time opponents on the 2019 schedule for the Braves along with Savannah State on March 3. Texas State won the only previous matchup with Bradley in 2011 in El Paso, Texas. San Jose State and the Braves have split two previous meetings with Bradley winning in Las Vegas in 2011 and the Spartans claiming a 2014 contest in Tempe, Ariz. Bradley owns a 3-2 lead in the all-time series with New Mexico State. Four of the previous five games with the Aggies have been played in Las Cruces, N.M., with Bradley owning a 3-1 record in those contests.
The Braves enter the Troy Cox Classic with a 1-4 record, but Bradley faced three Pac-12 teams during the opening weekend of play. In fact, the four losses have come to teams that own a combined 15-5 record entering the second week of the season. This weekend's action at the Troy Cox Classic features four of five games against teams that are at least .500 on the young season and three contests against squads which reached last year's NCAA Tournament (Texas State & New Mexico State).
After the opening weekend of the 2019 season, the youngsters have helped lead Bradley early on with freshman shortstop Lucy Mead sporting the top batting average on the squad at .313 and fellow freshmen Grace French notching the top pitching performance for the Braves at last week's Kajikawa Classic. Mead had hits in four of five games, opening up her Bradley career with a 2-for-4 effort with a triple and two runs scored in the season opener against Stanford. She went 5-for-16 at the plate with three runs and two RBI during the opening weekend of the season. French made two relief appearances Saturday against Weber State (0.2 scoreless innings) and #12/25 Oregon (1.0 inning with two unearned runs) before her first career start Sunday against Utah. In that start, French scattered six hits and struck out four as she limited the Utes to just two runs (one earned) in a complete game effort.
Senior outfielder Gabby Stoner picked up where she left off in 2018, hitting .308 in the opening weekend with a double, four runs and two RBI as she scored or drove in 38 percent of Bradley's runs at the Kajikawa Classic. The most experienced player on the Bradley roster, Stoner hit .357 (10-for-28) with a .455 on base percentage in the final 10 games of 2018 after moving from the infield to the outfield. She is the team's active career leader in games played (128), starts (120), at bats (324), hits (84), doubles (20) and runs (45).
Bradley Softball head coach Amy Hayes picked up her 207th win as head coach of the Braves last Friday with the 5-4 walk-off win over Seattle to tie the program record for coaching victories. Hayes shares the school wins mark with Clint Wilson, who coached the Braves from 1983-92. She is the 10th coach in MVC history with 100 career league wins and her 207 career overall wins as a Valley coach are tied for the 14th most in league history. Hayes has 420 career victories during her 18-year coaching career.
The Braves will follow the Troy Cox Classic with a trip to Knoxville, Tenn., for the Tennessee Invitational Feb. 22-24, where Bradley will play games against #6 Tennessee, Louisville and Virginia in addition to two matchups with Kansas.
