Those softball team is 11-7 record, their best start to a season since 2007, and it enjoyed a successful trip to California last weekend. The Braves (11-7) finished 4-1 on the weekend at the Gaucho Classic with wins over UC Santa Barbara, Portland State and Saint Peters in front of many West Coast fans.
Bradley won both games Friday: 6-4 over host UC Santa Barbara behind the efforts of three Braves pitchers and 2-1 against Portland State. Junior Stacia Seeton had a strong day at the plate, driving in three against the Gauchos and before swatting a home run against the Vikings, which ended up being the deciding factor in the victory.
Freshman Morgan Radford started both the second and third games of the weekend, hurling a complete game against Portland State on Friday before taking the only Braves loss of the weekend on Saturday against UCSB. The Braves still had silver linings in the 6-4 loss as senior Allison Apke went deep twice. Before the game, Apke only had two extra base hits this season.
According to Apke, she and her teammates are getting more comfortable as the season progresses.
“I was able to get my timing right and more locked in at the plate and make adjustments from previous weekends,” Apke said.
The senior first baseman listened to Hayes’ advice of trusting the process when it comes to hitting and it certainly paid dividends this past weekend. The senior first baseman collected an RBI in Bradley’s rematch with Portland State on Saturday, which resulted in the Braves prevailing 8-5. She slugged .675 last season and it currently sits at .563, third on the team.
Bradley put an exclamation mark on the weekend with a 12-0 mercy-rule win over St. Peter’s on Sunday. Apke drove in three runs and sophomore Grace French tossed Bradley’s third complete game of the weekend.
Coach Amy Hayes said that her players going the distance makes the job easier for her as a coach.
“It helps me define their roles a little bit better and know who’s a starter and who’s a closer,” Hayes said.
Bradley’s skipper noted how their rotation of French, Radford, junior Emma Jackson and junior Taise Thompson are a big part of BU’s success.
“We just need to keep our walks down, we’re not going to have the most strikeouts in the Valley,” Hayes said.
The Gaucho Classic handed the Braves their first opportunity this season to play against the same opponents more than once. Hayes emphasized that getting that experience will help them come conference play.
“It was good work for us before conference, we were able to see what adjustments we needed to make game to game,” Hayes said.
Hayes expressed how her entire squad played a role in producing the stellar results.
“Our lineup one through nine is pretty strong,” Hayes said. “This weekend everyone was contributing, and we were staring to click a little bit better.”
This weekend, Bradley heads to Clarksville, Tennessee for the Governors Classic against Austin Peay, Purdue Fort Wayne and UMass Lowell to close out the nonconference slate. The team hosts Loyola and Northern Iowa at the Louisville Slugger complex throughout the spring break weekends to open MVC play.
