Salukis complete sweep at Bradley with 6-3 win

Sunday, April 24

Peoria, Ill.

12:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

28-16, 11-8

Bradley

14-25, 8-10

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	3	0	1	1	1	0	0	6	13	0
Bradley	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	3	6	0

04/24/2016 | 12:00:00 | Softball

Box Score

April 24, 2016

By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

PEORIA, Ill. - The Southern Illinois softball team completed a three-game sweep of Bradley with a 6-3 win at Laura Bradley Park on Sunday afternoon. Brianna Jones won her 20th game of the season, and SIU's offense recorded a season-best 13 hits in the win.

SIU (28-16, 11-8 MVC) jumped out to a 3-0 lead with three two-out runs in the first inning. SIU piled up a season-high 13 hits and reached base in 20 of 39 plate appearances in the game. Southern also left a season-high 12 runners on base over seven innings, but single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings were more than enough for Jones (20-9), who became the seventh pitcher in SIU history to win 20 games in a single season.

"It was a little bit of an ugly game," head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "We left some people on base, but we pitched the ball extremely well again."

SIU played error-free for the second time in three games, helping SIU to its second three-game sweep of the conference season and fourth MVC series win of the year.

"We played very good defense," Blaylock said. "Eyrika Brandenburg and Merri Anne Patterson did some great things on the defensive end. We squeaked out a win, which was good for us. Now, we just need to keep it moving."

Jones, who won her second game of the weekend, scattered six hits in her 21st complete game of the season. Bradley, which came into the weekend with the best team batting average in the MVC in league games at .351, hit just .238 against Jones in 16 innings.

"We ask her to go out there and compete, and she did that," Blaylock said. "She had a great weekend."

Kelsey Gonzalez and Sydney Jones both had three-hit games; and Eyrika Brandenburg, Hanna Porter and Jessa Thomas all had two-hit games. All six runs came from different spots in the order and five players had at least one RBI.

Brianna Jones allowed only three runs, marking eight-straight appearances she has allowed three or fewer runs. Her 20th win of the season extends her SIU freshman record, and she is the seventh pitcher in program history to reach 20 wins in a season.

SIU moved to 11-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference with seven games left to play. Southern hits the road to face Evansville in a single game on Tuesday before returning home next weekend to host Northern Iowa on Senior Weekend. The Salukis close the regular season at Wichita State on May 7-8.

"We're just trying to play well towards the end of the season--that's our whole goal," Blaylock said. "We took a step towards that today, and we need to keep moving forward."

NOTES: SIU has won four-straight series against Bradley and swept three of them...Kelsey Gonzalez reached in four of five plate appearances and extended her hitting streak to five games...Shaye Harre drew two more walks; she has drawn 20 walks in 19 MVC games...Harre reached in 8-of-11 plate appearances in the series and slugged 1.500 over the three games...Gonzalez and Jessa Thomas each reached 10 RBIs on the season, giving SIU 10 players with double-figure RBIs...SIU did not allow a home run in any of the three games, and 18 of Bradley's 20 hits over the three games were singles.