The Braves softball team took to the road again after finishing a homestand where they won seven out of 10 games. The women traveled to Northern Iowa last weekend in search of their first road win in six games.
Bradley wouldn’t find a win in their first game against UNI, as the team fell 5-1. According to head coach Amy Hayes, the team played “flat” on Saturday and their offensive production certainly proved her point. The Braves had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth, but Bradley hitters were unable to plate any of the runners.
Senior Alyson Spinas-Valainis didn’t fare so well on the mound, either. The senior lacked her best control on the day as she gave up five walks in 5 1/3 innings of work. She also gave up seven hits for five runs en route to her 13th loss of the year.
“She struggled with location,” Hayes said. “She had the flu on Friday, and she was still getting over it. I don’t think she was on top of her game. She gave us the best she could, but she had too many walks, and they had timely hits.”
Luckily, the loss would not define the weekend for the Braves. The team bounced back in the next game and won 7-3 thanks to a career-best effort by sophomore Jaelen Hull.
Hull threw a complete game, allowing three runs on eight hits. The sophomore also struck out a career-high eight batters.
“Our pitching is coming along right now,” Hayes said. “Jaelen had surgery in the offseason and she just gets stronger every outing, which is good because that takes pressure off of [Spinas-Valainis].”
Brave hitters exploded in the nightcap for 10 hits and seven runs and were able to do more of the same the next day. The women took advantage of three UNI errors and put up nine hits in the contest to take the rubber match of the series 8-4.
Spinas-Valainis bounced back from her loss on Friday to go 6 2/3 innings with three strikeouts and four earned runs on Sunday to earn her seventh win of the season.
The Braves have completed more than half of their Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) games, and Hayes believes that the young team is “starting to gel.” However, there is one weakness that the head coach sees in her team right now.
“We have a little bit of a lack of putting people away,” Hayes said. “We’re getting to the point where we have control of the game, and it’s not an intentional let up, but it happens to us sometimes.”
Hayes admits that part of the issue is the youth of the team. She said she believes the best way to start putting teams away is to remain focused throughout the entirety of games.
“We need to continue to do what we do at the start of every game and understand that every single at-bat is important,” Hayes said. “Maybe you’ve gone 2-2, you need to focus just as strongly on your third at-bat, or maybe you’ve been able to get someone out twice; that means you need to work even harder on that third time because they’re making adjustments just like we are.”
Bradley squared off against Illinois State Wednesday night, dropping both games of the doubleheader to the Redbirds. The two losses bumped the team to 14-28 on the season, 8-9 in the MVC.
The Braves are in action again this weekend against Wichita State at Laura Bradley Park. The series begins with a doubleheader at noon tomorrow.
