After ending its four game losing skid with its first home win of the season, the Redbird softball team will travel down I-74 looking for its first Missouri Valley Conference win at Bradley this weekend. Illinois State will compete in a doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday, before completing the series with a noon match-up on Sunday at Laura Bradley Park in Peoria.
We need to go in and take of the things that we can control, head coach
Melinda Fischer said, and not worry about what theyre going to do.
Illinois State is coming off its first home win of the season, a 3-1 decision over Iowa. The Hawkeyes had beaten the Redbirds 7-3 earlier in the season at the Louisville Slugger Classic in Arizona.
The win over Iowa was big, Fischer said. I thought we played a pretty good game as a whole. We do need some people to step up on offense and they are capable of doing that. Weve seen our players have better at bats this week too; now is the time for production.
Illinois State (12-12, 0-3) owns a 33-12 advantage over Bradley (15-11, 1-2) in the all-time series. The Braves are in their first season under head coach Venus Taylor, a Western Illinois graduate. Last season, the teams split their two games; both were 1-0 decisions. An Emily Krueger homer was the only hit the Birds needed to get the win in game one. In game two, after seven scoreless innings, the Braves scored in the bottom of the eighth to hand Illinois State its first Valley loss of the season. The third game was cancelled due to below freezing temperatures.
Last year Bradley did a good job of getting the talent and position players it needed, head coach
Melinda Fischer said. It was a good nucleus of players for a new coach to get in their first year. Venus (Taylor) and her staff are doing a great job and theyre playing really well right now.
Krueger currently leads ISU with a .423 average and nine home runs. The Braves, who are on a five-game winning streak, are led by junior first baseman Brittany Mynsberge, who is hitting .388 with 33 hits and 32 RBI.
Both teams have already played Kansas and Southeast Missouri State this season. Bradley downed the Jayhawks, 6-4 before falling in the rematch (2-1), and it lost to SEMO, 8-6 in eight innings. ISU fell to Kansas 4-3 in 11 innings at the Saluki Round Robin, and defeated the Otahkians, 9-7 in the Hilltopper Spring Classic in Kentucky.
