The Bradley University Braves (9-10, 2-4 MVC) were defeated in the weekend series against the SIU softball team (22-5, 4-3 MVC) on March 27 and 28.

The Salukis won the first two games in the doubleheader on the first day of the series 6-1 and 4-1. In the last game on Sunday, SIU won in five innings with the score 11-2.

“[Bradley’s] got a really great offensive club, so I thought we did a really great job kind of holding them down. I’m just really our kids,” head coach Kerri Blaylock said.

In the first game of the double header on March 27, the Salukis scored the first two runs in the third inning with a RBI from senior outfielder Maris Boelens that brought sophomore outfielder Aubree Depron to home base and a run by freshman outfielder Bailey Caylor.

“I went into [the game] just wanting to focus on my confidence and wanted to just string together hits since we’ve kind of been struggling offensively this past week,” Boelens said in a release on the SIU athletics website.

Bradley scored their only run in the fourth inning with a home run to left field by freshman catcher Avry Blume. 

Southern finished the game with four runs in the fifth and sixth innings with runs from senior infielder Meredith Wernig, grad student infielder Maddy Vermejan and junior catcher Danyelle Eliers. Both teams had a scoreless seventh inning, giving the Salukis the win  6-1.

SIU started the second game of the doubleheader with Vermejan scoring in the first inning from a RBI by grad student catcher Katelyn Massa.

“We told [Massa] that she basically has hopefully seven weeks of her career left if we go to postseason, but we wanted her to really try to step up and help us this last little bit,” Blaylock said.

The Braves followed with a run in the second inning from a RBI that led to freshman pitcher Taise Thompson scoring.

Southern scored their last three runs in the third inning with a run by Boelens from an RBI by sophomore infielder Tori Schullian and a home run from Massa that brought her and Schullian , and the Salukis finished with the 4-1 win.

The last game of the weekend series started with two quick runs from the Salukis in the first inning by Vermejan and Boelens.

SIU added four more points to the board in the third inning with an RBI from senior infielder Jenny Jansen and a 3 RBI from Massa that led to runs by Jansen, Massa, Vermejan and Boelens. 

“I knew she was going to throw me outside so I thought to myself just sit back on that outside pitch and just take it there,” Massa said.

Bradley scored their first run in the fourth inning with a run by a RBI by Thompson. This was followed by a run by the Salukis from a RBI by Boelens where Vermejan scored.

Southern finished the game in five innings scoring four runs from freshman outfielder Elizabeth Warwick, freshman infielder Elisabeth Huckleberry and a two RBI from Caylor where Vermejan and DePron scored, making the score 11-2 giving the Salukis the win. 

The Salukis will take the field again on March 31 against Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Mo., at 3 p.m. 

“I think the biggest thing is consistency. We are looking for consistency right now and we may not have the results we had today but if we have consistent play we’ll have more better days than not,” Blaylock said.

Staff reporter Janae Mosby can be reached at jmosby@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @mosbyj.

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