NORTH CHARLESTON S.C. –Radford continues a six-game road swing and goes for its fifth Big South baseball series win this weekend in a three-game set at Charleston Southern beginning Friday.

Live Audio (all games)

Friday, 2 p.m. – RHP Aerik Taylor (4-3, 4.13 ERA) vs. RHP Anthony Markham (2-4, 6.18)

Saturday, 11:30 a.m. – RHP Shane Pysh (3-2, 6.00) vs. LHP Charlie McCready (0-4, 6.99)

Saturday, Game 2 – RHP Abram Williams (1-3, 5.26) vs. RHP Jesse Cadenhead (3-3, 7.63)

After splitting the mid-week schedule, the Highlanders (19-15, 10-6 Big South) head into the Big South weekend fourth in the conference standings, 3 1/2 games in back of first-place Liberty. Radford is a game back of the tie for second between Coastal Carolina and Winthrop, a pair of teams 2 1/2 games behind the Flames. 

Charleston Southern (13-28, 8-11) is tied with VMI for seventh place, seven games behind the front-runner. Radford leads the all-time series with the Buccaneers 29-23, and took three of four from CSU last season, including an opening-round win in the Big South tournament last May.

The Buccaneers have dropped 13 of their last 14 games and seven of eight in Big South play. Nick Chinners leads the way for CSU with a .372 batting average in 41 games, one of seven everyday players hitting better than .300 for the Buccaneers. Tyler Thornburg leads the way in the power categories with 10 homers and 43 driven in.

-        Highlighting the mid-week action was the 100th career win for head coach Joe Raccuia, a 1995 Radford graduate, on Tuesday over Davidson. Raccuia earned his 43rd win in a Highlander uniform after posting 57 in two seasons (2004-05) at Marist, his previous head coaching stop.

-        After going five games without a home run (including none in a Big South series sweep of VMI), the Highlanders hit three long balls in the two mid-week games. Junior center fielder Tyren Rivers launched a three-run homer in the fifth inning Tuesday against Davidson; junior catcher Robert Lamas had a three-run blast in the third inning at ETSU Wednesday, and freshman Matt Hillsinger launched a two-run shot in ninth against the Bucs.

-        All three homers had noteworthy significance: Rivers hit his third of the season – a career high; Lamas hit his second – with both coming in the state of Tennessee (No.1 came at Tennessee on March 3); Hillsinger hit his first – the first of his collegiate career.

-        Radford has scored in double-digits in four of the last six games, and three in a row: the Highlanders are 10-2 in 2009 when scoring 10 or more runs in a game.

-        The win on Tuesday against Davidson gave the Highlanders their fifth weekday win in six tries: overall, Radford is 5-5 in weekday affairs this season.

-        In addition, Radford played its two originally-scheduled mid-week games for the first time this season, and two weekday games for the first time since March 9-10 (Bryant, Virginia Tech).

-        Through 34 games (and with 14 scheduled games left), the Highlanders have 11.9 hits/game (404 total) and 7.5 runs per outing (256 total); that pace puts Radford ahead of last season's averages, with a school-record 583 hits (10.4/game) and 347 runs, most since 1995 (6.2/game). 

-        Overall, Radford leads the Big South with its .331 batting average, and is second in conference games at .332.