RADFORD at UNC ASHEVILLE April 22-23 | Asheville, N.C. RU in 2011: 21-15 (7-5) | Last 10: 6-4 | Streak: L1 Friday, April 22 | 3:00 p.m. | McCormick Field Live Stats | Live Audio RU RHP Eddie Butler vs. ASHE RHP Ryan Dull Saturday, April 23 | Noon | Greenwood Field Live Stats G1: RU RHP Mark Peterson vs. ASHE RHP Grier Harrington G2: RU RHP Bobby Bolling vs. ASHE RHP Tommy Houmard **Note: No live audio available for either game on Saturday**

Radford looks to win its fourth consecutive Big South series and carries a five-game league winning streak into its weekend series against UNC Asheville, a three-game set that begins on Friday.

Friday's first game will played at McCormick Field in downtown Asheville at 3 p.m. Because the Bulldogs share that stadium with the Asheville Tourists (A, Rockies), who play at home Saturday evening, the series shifts to Greenwood Field on UNC Asheville's campus for two games on Saturday beginning at noon.

Radford is 6-0 against Asheville over the past two seasons.

The series marks the first time the Highlanders will play on the road since April 5 – they concluded their eight-game homestand at newly-finished RU Baseball Stadium on Tuesday night with a 12-0 loss to top-ranked Virginia in front of a school-record crowd.

On the strength of wins in two of three games against Presbyterian and VMI and the program's first-ever sweep of Winthrop last weekend, Radford enters the series in third place in the Big South standings. The Highlanders, picked to finish in a tie for fifth in the conference preseason poll, are three games behind front-running Coastal Carolina and a game-and-a-half behind second-place Liberty.

The top four teams in the conference avoid a single-elimination play-in round in the Big South Tournament, which begins May 24 at VMI.

UNC Asheville (15-22, 7-8) is 5-5 over its last 10 games and comes into the weekend in a tie for sixth place with Charleston Southern, 4 1/2 games behind Coastal. The Bulldogs picked up a series win at home against High Point last weekend and own a series victory over Coastal Carolina (March 25-27).

Following the Asheville series, the Highlanders play four of the next five games at home, beginning on Tuesday with a 6 p.m. meeting with Appalachian State.

WEEEKEND NOTEBOOK
• Saturday will be the sixth time in the last seven weekends that the Highlanders have been involved in a doubleheader
• Three have been played as scheduled (Hartford, Cornell, at UNC Asheville) and three were made necessary because of inclement weather (at Charleston Southern, VMI, Winthrop)
• Radford swept its series with Asheville a season ago in Radford March 19-21 – Saturday and Sunday's games were one-run affairs
• Radford last visited McCormick Field for the 2009 Big South Tournament and the first game of a regular season series with the Bulldogs – Radford was 2-2 playing there
• Ryan Burgess (2nd - .438), Matt Mack (4 - .435) and Matt Hillsinger (T9 - .380) rank in the top 10 in batting average in Big South games entering the weekend
• Bobby Bolling is eighth in Big South games with a 2.81 ERA in four league starts
• Abram Williams, who set the school's single-season saves record in the finale with Winthrop on Sunday, is tied for seventh in the nation with 10 saves
• Williams, with 10 saves on 11 chances, is just three behind national leader Bo Reeder of ETSU, who picked up a save against the Highlanders in March