BOX SCORE

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Ryan Burgess hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning and Eddie Butler earned his eighth win of the season to help Radford to a 5-4 series-opening win over Liberty on Thursday night.

Abram Williams worked a scoreless ninth to earn his 15th save, one shy of the Big South conference record of 16 set by Liberty's Josh Brey in 2000.

Blake Sipe added a 3-for-4 evening and Alex Guerra went 2-for-4 for the Highlanders (29-22, 13-12 Big South), who have won three of four league games after a stretch of six consecutive conference losses entering last weekend's High Point series.

“We played well,” head coach Joe Raccuia said. “It was a game where we played well, defended well and played the way we are supposed to play.”

Radford scored first and never looked back – Matt Hillsinger singled to lead off the game, was moved to third on Brett Mollenhauer's double to the gap and scored on Guerra's sacrifice fly.

The Highlanders got two more in the fourth to take a 3-0 lead. Sipe hit a hard single off the bag at second base to score Burgess following his leadoff hit, then Zach Costello knocked a squeeze bunt up the first base line to bring in Carl Travers.

Butler (8-2) set down 10 of the Flames' (32-21, 17-8) first 11 batters before they got on the board in the bottom of the fourth on Casey Rasmus' groundout to second, scoring Matt Williams to make it a 3-1 game.

“Butler attacked hitters and got our infield defense involved early in the game, getting them into a rhythm,” Raccuia said “He commanded the zone and made out pitches.”

Burgess hit his home run, his second of the season, to cap the scoring for the Highlanders with one out in the fifth. Radford needed the runs – Liberty made it a one-run game with three in the bottom of the seventh when Ian Parmley's first hit of the night was a two-run triple to left center, followed by Michael Robertson's single to bring Parmley home. Robertson went 2-for-4 to lead the Flames.

Following the Robertson hit, Jake Quigg and Williams retired the next seven Liberty hitters to close out the game.

“That was probably the best Abram has looked all season, believe it or not,” Raccuia said. “He's got all of those saves, but that was the best outing he's had.”

John Niggli allowed all five Radford runs on eight hits to take the loss (4-3).

The series continues at 7 p.m. on Friday.