Bradley softball dealt with yet another scrambled schedule last weekend, with snow and cold weather forcing the team to move their originally scheduled games in Tennessee down to Alabama for the Sand Dollar Snow Classic.
Facing off against Belmont, Murray State and Eastern Kentucky, the Braves played two of their best games of the season and two other games that did not.
The team started the tournament by defeating Belmont 12-1 in five innings. Sophomore Jaelen Hull pitched a complete game four-hitter, allowing just one run while striking out three to pick up her first win. Head coach Amy Hayes said Hull is getting close to returning to form after dealing with an elbow injury in the offseason.
“She looked pretty strong,” Hayes said. “The bottom line for Jaelen is she’s got to find that consistency, and she’s not going to get it until she pitches more. She didn’t start throwing until over Christmas break and did a great job but she’s just trying to get that consistency. When you have 15-25 days of preseason before throwing her into games it’s going to take a while.”
Offensively, Bradley got a three-run home run off the bat of second baseman Shannon King along with four RBIs from junior Kathryn Spenn.
The senior hit .302 for Bradley last year, good for third on the team, but in 2015 King’s average sits at just .137. Hayes said stats can be misleading at times, noting that even if you square up a pitch it may not result in a hit.
“She’s hit the ball really well, that’s why stats are stats,” Hayes said. “In New Mexico she connected on almost every single at-bat. She lined out to the left fielder who made a diving catch down the line, and she hit one over her head that [the left fielder] made a leaping grab on. She’s been putting the ball in-play and squaring it up fairly decently; she just hasn’t found the drop yet.”
Bradley’s next two games did not go as well. The team was outscored 19-8 in losses to Eastern Kentucky and Murray State, with Hull and senior Alyson Spinas-Valainis allowing 13 runs (eight earned) combined on 13 hits in six total innings of work. Hayes took the blame for Spinas-Valainis’ bad outing, saying that the senior pitched well but a poor strategic decision led to the blowup.
“She kept the ball down and had better spots,” Hayes said. “Saturday was not [Spinas-Valainis’] fault, that’s my fault as a coach. We’re trying to work through [our pitching], and I left her in a little bit longer hoping she’d work through it, and she didn’t.”
A good day, indeed. Spinas-Valainis tossed a complete-game three hitter with four strikeouts for the Braves. She was backed up offensively by freshman Erika Hansen, who launched two-run home run in the bottom of the second for the only runs Bradley would need in their 2-1 victory.
The Braves will look to build on the team’s performance last weekend at the UCF Knights Invitational in Orlando, Florida this weekend. Today, the team faces off against Kent State at noon and the Knights at 4:30 p.m. Bradley has another game against Kent State tomorrow and two games against Michigan State this weekend to finish out the tournament.
Hayes said she believes the teams in the tournament will be a good test for the Braves.
“Central Florida’s ranked, [and] they’re having a great year,” Hayes said. “Kent State has been snowed out a bit, and Michigan State is steadily increasing their game, so it’s going to be a great test for us for sure.”
