Live Stream: Bradley (Sun.) | Bradley (Gm. 1) | Bradley (Gm. 2) | UIC (TBD) | Northwestern
Live Stats: Bradley (Sun.) | Bradley (Gm. 1) | Bradley (Gm. 2)  | UIC | Northwestern (TBD)
 
CHICAGO (March 30, 2019) – The Loyola University Chicago softball team welcomes Bradley University to Rogers Park for a three-game series that serves as the home opener. The Sunday-Monday slate begins a stretch of four consecutive days of game action for the Ramblers. LUC takes on Bradley for a 1 p.m. contest on March 31 before wrapping up the series with a doubleheader on April 1. The team is back at Loyola Softball Park for a rematch with UIC the next day at 4 p.m., followed by a game the same time the next day up in Evanston, Ill. against Northwestern.
 
Last Time Out: Loyola dropped a midweek contest to UIC, 2-1, at Flames Field on Tuesday, March 26. The Ramblers got an RBI from Shannon McGee to run her total to 22 this season, and exceed her previous career high of 21 from last season. Loyola had two runners on base in the fifth, sixth and seventh inning but only scored once on McGee's fielder's choice in the seventh.
 
A Look at the Braves: Bradley, picked to finish 8^th in the MVC, enters the weekend one game over .500 at a 14-13 overall clip. Leading the offense is the trio of Lucy Mead, Kealia Wysocki and Jillian Navarro. While Mead boasts the team's best batting average among qualifiers at .415, Wysocki (8 HR) and Navarro (6 HR) provide the power with home run totals at the top of the Valley. The Braves lead the conference in home runs (42), slugging percentage (.519), RBI (144) and total bases (374).
 
A Look at the Flames: UIC defeated Butler, 4-2, in extra innings the very next day after it played host to Loyola. The victory was the Flames fifth straight, a win that saw them erase a two-run deficit in the top of the fourth. UIC returns to Chicago for a Horizon League clash with Detroit Mercy prior to taking on the Ramblers at Loyola Softball Park on Tuesday. The Flames enter that series undefeated at home, and will enter Tuesday 2-4 on the road.

A Look at the Wildcats: Northwestern is off to a blistering 23-7 start in Kate Drohan's 18^th season as the Wildcats' head coach. The team is in the midst of a three-game road swing against Iowa for their second Big Ten series of the season. Freshman Danielle Johnson has taken the reigns as the ace of the pitching staff in her first season of collegiate softball. Entering Friday, the lefty is 15-3 on the season and leads the staff with 103.1 innings pitched and a 1.35 ERA. The Wildcats also entered the weekend with three players clubbing .340 or better – led by Jordyn Rudd and Morgan Newport's .349 clips.
 
Series Stuff: Loyola's first matchup with Bradley was back in 1996, and since then the Braves have built a 21-11 all-time advantage. The Ramblers' longest head-to-head winning streak is seven over the course of 1997-04. Tuesday would be the first time since 2013 that Loyola and UIC played twice in a season, with the Flames holding a 60-25-1 lead after last week's result. Northwestern holds an 18-6 all-time edge over Loyola in a series that also dates back to 1996.
 
Up Next: Following the game at Northwestern, Loyola begins another long homestand that extends until April 10. First on the slate is a weekend series with Indiana State, set for April 6-7.
 
#OnwardLU