SERIES NOTES
Radford opens Big South conference play and continues a six-game road trip this weekend when the Highlanders travel to Charleston Southern for a three-game series.
Last weekend, the Highlanders and Coastal Carolina were the only teams not to open league play – the remaining eight teams participated in conference action.
The Highlanders, picked to finish in a tie for the fifth place spot in the league's preseason poll, were third in the Big South a season ago with their 15-10 record. In each of head coach
Joe Raccuia's seasons, Radford has improved its league standing – sixth in 2008 (6-14), fourth in 2009 (16-9), third in 2010 (15-10).
Radford's third place finish last season was its best since 1999. All-time, the Highlanders are 206-288 (.417) in Big South play and 31-19 (.620) over the last two seasons.
Entering the weekend, the Highlanders are 8-2 over their last 10 and winners of seven of eight games. Radford split a midweek doubleheader at East Tennessee State, dropping the opener 7-4 before winning the nightcap 9-4.
All-time, Radford leads the series with Charleston Southern 35-28. Over the last two seasons, the Buccaneers are 4-2 against the Highlanders.
Charleston Southern was swept at Liberty to begin its Big South campaign a weekend ago. Over their last 10 games, the Buccaneers are 6-4 and they are 8-7 in the month of March.
WEEEKEND NOTEBOOK:
• In a series sweep of Cornell last weekend, the Highlanders got 8 1/3 innings from each of their three starters:
Eddie Butler,
Mark Peterson and
Bobby Bolling
• Butler leads the Highlanders with a 3-0 record and now has a 9-5 career mark, putting him just outside of the school's career top ten list for victories
• Peterson earned his first win in the first game last Saturday, and took a perfect game bid to the seventh inning, retiring the first 20 Cornell batters before allowing a double with two outs in the seventh
• Bolling had a career-long outing on Sunday, and retired 14 batters in a row after a leadoff triple to begin the game for Cornell – He matched a career-high with nine strikeouts
• Bolling is tops in the Big South and 15th in the nation with 40 strikeouts and seventh in the league with his 2.53 ERA
• Radford's weekend starters have a combined 2.99 ERA while opponents are hitting .212 off the trio
•
Abram Williams is more than halfway to a school single-season saves record (9) with his five – Williams is tied for the conference lead and ranks 14th in the country
• The Highlanders enter the weekend fifth in the league with a 4.37 batting average
• Radford, which enters the weekend third in the conference with a .300 team average, continues to be led by
Cory Turner's .403 mark
• Turner extended his hitting streak to seven games with hits in each game of the ETSU doubleheader on Tuesday
• Turner owns the team's longest hit streak of the year at nine games (14-for-30)
• His .518 on-base percentage is second in the conference
•
Matt Hillsinger is second in the league and 11th nationally with 14 stolen bases – he needs six more to become the eighth player in program history to reach 20 steals in a season
• Hillsinger is ahead of the steals pace set by
Reggie Keen (31) and
Tyren Rivers (33) in school-record setting seasons
• Radford's .973 fielding percentage remains tops in the conference – the Highlanders were 34th in the nation in the most recent national statistics report
