Bradley Wins Friday Tournament Opener

Bradley jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning over Northern Colorado and never looked back, topping the Bears 9-3 Friday afternoon to open play at the Troy Cox Classic.

The Braves opened the contest with three consecutive hits and took an early 3-0 lead in the third game of the young season against Northern Colorado after the two teams split a pair of games at the season-opening Grand Canyon Kickoff Tournament in Phoenix, Ariz. 

Senior Kelly Kapp led off the bottom half of the first with a single and stole second before coming around to score on a Maria Schroeder double to open the scoring for Bradley.  The double extended Shroeder’s hit streak to six games as she collected her fifth double of the season.  Fellow senior Caitlyn McCarron drove in another run with a double to left and freshman Kealia Wysocki made it a 3-0 Bradley lead with a RBI groundout. 

Freshman Emily Visnic worked around a leadoff double to in the top of the first and carried a shutout bid into the fifth.  Visnic allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in the second, third and fourth innings, but got out of each frame unscathed. 

The Braves added a run in the bottom of the third to push the lead to 4-0.  McCarron had a one-out double for her second two-bagger of the game and later scored on a fielder’s choice by sophomore Megan Mahaffy. 

Bradley broke the contest open with a five-run fourth.  Junior Elizabeth Leonard singled to open the frame and eventually scored on a Taylor Willhalm double.  Another run came across on a Kapp single and a two-run single by Katie Habryle pushed the advantage to 8-0.  Schroeder raced home from third on a passed ball as the Braves took a 9-0 lead into the fifth.

Northern Colorado scraped together three unearned runs in the top of the fifth to keep the game alive.  The Bears reached on an error and a single to start the inning and Cheyenne Talmadge broke up the shutout with a RBI single to right.  Jordan Wiatrak plated another run with a RBI single to left to chase Visnic from the contest.  A two-out bases loaded walk knocked in the third Northern Colorado run of the game and trim Bradley’s lead to 9-3. 

Sophomore Julie Kestas, who entered the game with two outs in the fifth, sat Northern Colorado down in order in the sixth and was able to work around a single and error in the seventh to close out the 9-3 win and earn the save.  Visnic struck out three and scattered six hits and three unearned runs in 4.2 innings as she picked up her first win as a Brave.

Kapp was 2-for-3 with two runs, one RBI and a stolen base, while McCarron had two doubles and also went 2-for-4 at the plate to help highlight Bradley’s 10-hit attack.