Radford returns to the New River Valley for a pair of midweek games, traveling across the river to Virginia Tech on Tuesday before hosting Longwood in the program's first-ever home night game on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Following the first of two season meetings with Virginia Tech, the Highlanders will return home from a six-game road trip to host the first of a two games against Longwood. Radford is 6-0 at home this season.
Lights were installed and became functional at the Highlanders' home on March 11, as a part of the stadium construction project. Radford is expected to open its new stadium on Friday, April 8 when the Highlanders play their Big South home opener against VMI.
Radford University played its first season of intercollegiate baseball in 1985 and played on campus for the first time in 1986 – the Highlanders have hosted games at the same campus site since then, and made the first of a series of major upgrades a season ago with a new playing surface and dugouts.
Tuesday's game will be the Highlanders' first trip to Virginia Tech since April 29, 2009 – last season, the Hokies (14-12) were ranked No. 20 when they traveled to Radford for a single game on April 20. Tech leads the all-time series, which began in 1989, 33-9. The Hokies will visit Radford's new stadium on Tuesday, April 12.
Longwood (18-10) and Radford split the series with home wins for each team – Radford beat the Lancers at home 8-2 on April 14. The Highlanders travel to Longwood on April 27.
MIDWEEK NOTEBOOK
• Radford picked up its first midweek win of the season last week with a win (9-4) last Tuesday in the second game of the doubleheader at East Tennessee State
• The Highlanders collected 31 hits and stole eight bases in the Charleston Southern series, but only scored 11 runs
• Among the Big South clubs, the Highlanders rank first in doubles (57) and triples (9), and second in home runs (15), stolen bases (47) total bases (356) and team slugging percentage (.446)
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Matt Hillsinger led Radford offensively against CSU, going 7-14 in the series with three stolen bases and his fifth homer of the season in the series finale
• Hillsinger is on pace to break the school's single season stolen bases record, set in 2010 by
Tyren Rivers with 33 – his 17 steals are tied for the league's best total
• Hillsinger is also the team's new leader in batting average at .387, fourth in the Big South; he's fourth in home runs (5) and slugging percentage (.634)
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Cory Turner hit in all three games of the series to extend his hitting streak to a team-high 10 games
• Turner's .370 average is tied for eighth in the league
• Designated hitter
Ryan Burgess also hit in all three games of the Charleston Southern series, going 5-for-9 with two RBIs
• Radford continues to pace the Big South in team fielding percentage at .972
