Bradley’s softball team wrapped up its season-long 10 game homestand with an offensive explosion against the Indiana State Sycamores last weekend.
The team crushed five home runs in a doubleheader Saturday, including a grand slam in the first inning by senior second baseman Shannon King. The blast gave the Braves a 4-0 lead in the first inning and was the first of three homers Bradley would hit in the game.
Senior Lexi Cremeens and freshman Maria Schroeder also connected for home runs for the Braves, with Cremeens’ blast being the third one she had hit in Bradley’s previous four games. Schroeder’s two-run shot in the fourth inning gave the Braves an 11-2 lead, which triggered the Missouri Valley Conference run rule.
Bradley had entered the weekend with 13 home runs in 937 at-bats, and adding seven more to that total seemed to back up head coach Amy Hayes, who noted the team had a penchant for the longball.
“I think we’re a power team; I just think it hadn’t shown up yet,” Hayes said. “It’s the style of hitting that we have, and if you look at the numbers we put up last year, it’s just kind of what we do. Losing [senior] Aly Clemente was a pretty big shot to the middle of the lineup as far as power, so you’re asking some kids to do a little bit more.”
Clemente led the team in runs, RBIs and putouts as a junior last season, but she suffered an injury during an offseason workout and will be redshirted this season.
Fellow senior Alyson Spinas-Valainis picked up the win for the Braves in game one against the Sycamores, tossing all five innings of the game while allowing just two unearned runs. However, she walked three batters in the game, bringing her season total to 51 walks in 129.2 innings.
Hayes said there were a couple different factors that explain Spinas-Valainis’ recent issues with walks.
“She has good movement on her ball, and I think we’re just not placing quite as well as we need to be,” Hayes said. “She threw a lot of innings early in the season, and it kind of caught up to her. We’re kind of backing off practice, and I think that has caused her to not be as sharp and that’s why her walks are up.”
In the second game, Bradley launched two more home runs. Tied at two in the bottom of the fifth, sophomore Caitlin McCarron followed up a walk to freshman Erika Hansen by lining a two-run home run to right field. Two batters later, junior Kendall Duffy smacked a three-run home run to put the Braves up by five. Bradley would win the game 7-3.
Every Bradley starter reached base at least once Saturday, with five of the nine hitters hitting home runs. Hayes said she was happy to see the team produce offensively from the top of the order to the bottom.
“It’s joyous; it’s a fantastic moment,” Hayes said. “It really was, in those games we put a lot of things together really, really well. We had kind of been building up to that and to see that come through was great, which is why Sunday was such a disappointment in the end.”
Bradley jumped out to a 6-1 lead Sunday, but three errors led to eight straight runs for Indiana State and Bradley lost 9-6.
The Braves finish their homestand with a 7-3 record, with six of those seven wins coming in their last seven games. The team begins a five-game road trip tomorrow at noon against Northern Iowa.
