Softball Continues Road Swing With Weekend Series At Evansville

Softball 4/11/2019 3:51:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Softball continues a seven-game Missouri Valley Conference road swing and puts a program record eight-game road win streak on the line when the Braves visit Evansville for a three-game weekend series. The series starts Saturday with a noon doubleheader at Evansville's Cooper Stadium and wraps up Sunday with a single game at 11 a.m.

An 8-4 midweek victory against I-74 rival Illinois State moved Bradley (20-15 overall, 7-5 MVC) within a half-game of fifth-place Northern Iowa in the MVC standings and just one game back of Southern Illinois, which is currently tied with ISU for second. Evansville (13-23 overall, 3-10 MVC) split a Wednesday home doubleheader against Indiana State to improve to 3-2 in its last five home contests.

All three games of the series will be available on ESPN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for each contest.

The Braves own a 39-35 lead in the all-time series after taking two of three games from the Purple Aces last season. Bradley has won the season series from UE in five consecutive seasons, owning a 12-3 mark over that stretch and head coach Amy Hayes is 18-10 against her alma mater as head coach of the Braves. Overall, Bradley is 17-22 on the road in the series, which includes an 11-6 mark under Hayes.

Wednesday's win at Illinois State was Bradley's 20th victory of the season, matching last year's overall win total. With a 20-15 overall mark, the Braves need three wins for their highest win total since a 27-win season in 2014, which included a MVC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance. The last time Bradley had 20 wins by April 10 was 2013 (April 6) when the Braves started the season 20-12. Bradley is three wins short of its highest regular-season win total since 2014 (24) and two wins from matching its Valley win total from 2018.

Bradley's nine true road wins are the third most in the MVC and the Braves have nine road victories for the first time since 2014 (9). In fact, the nine road wins are tied with the 2014 (9-17) and 2006 (9-11) squads for the most road wins in a season for BU dating back to the 2004 team, which finished 11-15 in road contests. Sporting a 9-2 road mark on the year, the Braves play nine of the final 14 regular-season games on the road, including the next six. The school record for road wins in a season came in 1985 (14-7-1) and Bradley needs two road wins for its first season with a .500 road record or better since 1995 (12-8).

Part of the reason for Bradley's success on the road has been the offensive production. The Braves have averaged 7.64 in road games this season vs. 4.25 in the eight home contests and the only road games Bradley hasn't scored at least seven runs were the 8-0 loss at then #7 Tennessee Feb. 24 and a 4-3 victory at New Mexico State (Feb. 15) in the first road game of the season. Junior Allison Apke and sophomore Taise Thompson are both hitting .448 (13-for-29) in true road games. In the circle, freshman Grace French is 3-0 with a 0.57 ERA in three appearances in road games, while senior hurler Julie Kestas is 1-0 with a 0.98 ERA in three outings (two starts) in road contests.

Apke owns a nine-game hit streak after a 2-for-3 effort at Illinois State Wednesday, which included her 10th home run of the season. The only player in school history to hit 10 or more homers in two different seasons, she is two homers short of tying the Bradley season mark she matched just last spring. Apke's homer was the 51st of the season for the Braves, putting Bradley one short of breaking into the top 15 season totals in league history and just six short of the top 10.

After the weekend series at Evansville, Bradley closes out the road swing with a series at Northern Iowa, April 19 & 20 in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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