Bradley Braves, Apke Open Season

Bradley Softball makes its eighth trip in the last nine years to the state of Arizona, with the Braves opening the 2019 season at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz., Friday through Sunday. 

The opening weekend of the season features a trio of games against Pac-12 teams in 2018 Women’s College World Series participant Oregon, Stanford and Utah along with games against Seattle and Weber State. 

Bradley opens the season Friday with a 10 a.m. (CST) matchup against Stanford (24-31 overall in 2018) in addition to a 3:30 p.m. (CST) game against Seattle (33-23 overall in 2018). Saturday’s action includes a 3:30 p.m. (CST) contest against Weber State (28-26 overall in 2018), along with a 6 p.m. (CST) outing vs. Oregon (53-10 overall in 2018) as the Braves face a team which reached the Women’s College World Series the previous year during the opening weekend for the second straight season. Bradley finishes out the weekend Sunday with a 12:30 p.m. (CST) game against Utah (20-30 overall in 2018). 

Friday’s game against Stanford will be streamed on the Pac-12 Network, while the games against Seattle and Weber State will be available for purchase through FloSoftball. BradleyBraves will provide links to live stats. For more information about the Kajikawa Classic visit the Tournament Central page at https://thesundevils.com/gameday/softball-vs-western-michigan/softball/49/

Bradley opens its 41st season of competition with the 2019 Kajikawa Classic. The Braves are 19-21 all-time in season openers after posting an 8-0 win over Saint Louis at last year’s Petersen Hotels Invitational played in Peoria at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex. Over the last 13 seasons Bradley is 8-5 in season openers. The Braves own a 12-15 mark when opening a season at a neutral site. 

In six previous trips to the Kajikawa Classic, Bradley has played six of 30 all-time games in the tournament against top-25 squads and nine of the 30 contests have come against teams which reached the NCAA Tournament that spring. 

Bradley finished the 2018 season with a 7-6 record in neutral site contests and is 18-12 in neutral contests over the past two seasons.  In fact, BU has had a .500 record or better in neutral site contests in seven of head coach Amy Hayes’ 10 seasons. Last year, Bradley averaged 5.8 runs and hit 1.23 homers per game in neutral site games and over the last two seasons has scored 5.9 runs while hitting one home run per contest in 30 neutral site contests vs. 3.7 runs and 0.6 homers per game in home and true road contests between the 2017 and 2018 campaigns. 

The Braves return the bulk of its lineup from last year’s team which slugged school records for doubles (73) and home runs (46) in addition to leading the league in scoring at 4.76 runs per contest. The 2019 roster features 13 of 15 letterwinners from last year’s team, including seven returning starters and the entire pitching staff. Bradley’s returning letterwinners combined for over 75 percent of the team’s hits (76%), doubles (85%), homers (91%) and RBI (81%) in addition to scoring 74 percent of last year’s runs. The pitching staff boasted the lowest team ERA (3.79) and opponent batting average (.288) since the 2014 squad, which advanced to the NCAA Tournament. In fact, Bradley pitchers surrendered the fewest home runs since 2009. 

Junior Allison Apke of Teutopolis was a First-Team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection in 2018 last year after leading Bradley in doubles, (11), homers (12), RBI (44) and walks (25), while breaking the school season record for slugging percentage (.699). A .353 hitter last year, she matched the Bradley season home run mark of 12 originally set by current BU Assistant Coach Rachel Huggins as a senior in 2016. Apke turned in just the fourth season in Missouri Valley Conference history of 11 doubles, 12 homers, 44 RBI and at least 25 walks. Her 44 RBI last year were second in the MVC and rank as the third-best season total in school history. After tying the Bradley season home run record, Apke enters her junior season tied for fifth in school history with 15 career homers and was named to the MVC’s preseason all-conference team. 

The Braves follow up the trip to Tempe, Ariz., by traveling to Las Cruces, N.M. for the Troy Cox Classic (Feb. 15-17), where Bradley will play a pair of games against tournament-host New Mexico State in addition to single games against Montana, Texas State and San Jose State.