RADFORD, Va. – With fourth place in the league standings and a bye in the 2009 Big South Conference Baseball Tournament on the line, Radford concludes its 2009 regular season with three games at Liberty beginning Thursday night.
Live Stats (all games)
Live Audio (all games)
Probable Starting Pitchers
Thursday, 4 p.m. –
RHP Aerik Taylor (5-3, 4.06 ERA) vs. LHP Shawn Teufel (7-2, 4.35)
Friday, 1 p.m. –
RHP Shane Pysh (3-3, 5.40) vs. LHP Steven Evans (6-2, 3.75)
On Monday, the league office announced that three teams have clinched top-4 seeds in the upcoming Big South Baseball Championship - Coastal Carolina, Liberty and Winthrop - meaning they will open the tournament in the main double-elimination bracket on Wednesday, May 20 at McCormick Field in Asheville, N.C.
The last top-4 seed is between Radford and Gardner-Webb. Seeds 5-8 (Charleston Southern, High Point, VMI) will play in the two single-elimination games on Tuesday, May 19 at McCormick Field. Official seedings will be announced this Saturday evening, May 16, at the conclusion of regular-season play.
While the Highlanders (23-21, 14-8 Big South) travel to Liberty for three games, 12-12 Gardner-Webb sits three games behind Radford heading into a three-game set at Winthrop. Either one Radford win or three Gardner-Webb losses will clinch a top-4 seed for the Highlanders.
Radford takes aim at a top seed this weekend, while looking for its sixth conference series win of the season, taking a three-game Big South winning streak into the series. Following a sweep of Gardner-Webb May 1-2, the Highlanders had a week off for final exams and resumed regular season play hosting a two-game set against Marshall last Saturday and Sunday. The Thundering Herd rallied in the ninth for an 8-7 win over the Highlanders on Saturday night at Calfee Park in Pulaski, and Marshall held off a Radford rally in the ninth for a 5-3 win back on campus Sunday afternoon.
Coming off a three-game sweep at Coastal Carolina May 1-3, the Flames (30-17, 16-7) snapped a four-game slide Wednesday night with a 4-1 non-conference win at Duke. Despite a fourth-inning, 6-1 lead, for the Flames in a nationally-televised game on May 1, Coastal Carolina rallied for a 13-7 victory. The Chanticleers silenced Liberty's bats in the final two games of the series with 4-1 and 7-2 wins.
Center fielder Curran Redal leads the Flames at the plate with a .397 average in 47 games. Redal is one of five Liberty players with six or more homers this season, highlighted by third baseman Tyler Bream's eight long balls and 57 knocked in.
Radford Baseball Notebook:
- One more win for the 2009 Highlanders will match their 2008 win total of 24; last season's team played 56 total games, and finished 24-32 (through Wednesday, Radford has played the fewest games in the Big South at 44).
- This season's team has more than doubled its Big South win total from last season (6).
- The 2009 Highlanders are bidding to become the first Radford team to win 24 or more games in back-to-back seasons since the 1990s, when that number was bested from 1992-95.
- That includes the 1994 (26) and 1995 (30) seasons, when current head coach
Joe Raccuia manned second base for the Highlanders.
- If the season ended today, the 2009 team would be two batting average points below the school's single-season team record. The 1994 Highlanders hit .320 as a team.
- Alex Gregory is bidding for his third-straight season with an average of .400 or better; Gregory is at .406 entering the weekend.
- According to Big South officials, Gregory is looking to become the first player in Big South Conference history with three .400 seasons.
- Also, he's currently11th all-time in Big South history with a .376 career batting average; is tied for 16th in league history with 265 hits; is tied for 12th in league history with 37 home runs; is 13th in league history with 424 total bases.
- Gregory also leads the conference in overall on-base percentage (.508) and is tops in league-only games batting average at .427.
- Categorically speaking, Radford leads the league and is 25th in the country in triples with 17.
Brett Mollenhauer's four are second in the Big South.
- The Highlanders are third in the league with 177 walks and have the third-fewest strikeouts at 256.
- Radford's pitching staff is near the top of the league in fewest hits (second, 464), runs (third, 296) and walks (second, 157) allowed.
- Defensively, the Highlanders have turned a league-leading 43 double plays and the second-fewest errors with 57.
