Bradley opens up conference play with a series at Evansville this weekend. The teams will play a doubleheader on Friday and finish the series on Sunday with one game.
The Braves and Purple Aces have met 82 times since 1988, and Bradley leads the overall series 42-40. Evansville has won the past two matchups, the most recent being a 6-3 win in April of last year.
WEEKEND INFORMATION
| WATCH |
ESPN+/ESPN3 |
| LISTEN |
N/A |
| TIME |
Friday: 2:00 p.m. & 4:00 p.m.
Sunday: 12:00 p.m. |
| LOCATION |
Cooper Stadium | Evansville, Ind. |
BRADLEY BRAVES
The Braves are 8-16 on the season thus far. The team recently traveled to SIUE for a doubleheader but lost both games 2-3.
Grace French and
Lauren DeRolf continue to lead the Braves offensively, both still hitting over .400. French is currently leading the conference and the entire NCAA in doubles with 13. Numerous players can be found in the top 10 of many MVC categories, including: batting average (French .417, DeRolf .414), slugging percentage (French .722), on-base percentage (French .523, Badgley .450, DeRolf .435), runs scored (DeRolf 20, French 15, Cirone 14), hits (DeRolf 36, French 30, Cirone, 24), RBIs (French 17), doubles (French 13, van der Werf 8), triples (Welsh 2) and total bases (French 52, DeRolf 41, van der Werf 33).
BRADLEY 2023 STATS LEADERS
| AVG. |
RBI |
ERA |
| French - .427 |
French - 17 |
Badgley - 4.82 (56.2 IP) |
| DeRolf - .414 |
French - 14 |
French - 4.96 (60.2 IP) |
| Badgley - .283 |
van der Werf - 12 |
N/A |
EVANSVILLE PURPLE ACES
The Purple Aces come into the weekend with a record of 14-9. The team finished eighth in the MVC last year, going 24-27 overall and 9-18 in conference. Evansville recently went 1-4 at the Lady Bison Classic in Nashville. The Purple Aces have a trio of players hitting over .300 on the season: Alexa Davis, Jenna Nink and Hannah Hood. They have a combined 53 of the team's 143 hits and 35 of the 95 RBIs. Mikayla Jolly leads them in the circle with an ERA of 2.79 and 32 strikeouts.
EVANSVILLE 2023 STATS LEADERS
| AVG. |
RBI |
ERA |
| Alexa Davis - .333 |
Taylor Howe/Zoe Frossard - 14 |
Mikayla Jolly - 2.79 (38.2 IP) |
| Jenna Nink - .311 |
Jenna Nink/Hannah Hood - 13 |
Erin Kleffman - 6.48 (33.1 IP) |
| Hannah Hood - .305 |
Alexa Davis - 9 |
N/A |
The Braves will head to Champaign to face Illinois on Wednesday March 22 before returning to Peoria for their home opener against Murray State.
