BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 GAME 1 BOX | GAME 2 BOX

STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern scored walk-off runs in both games to sweep a doubleheader from Radford on Saturday, with consecutive 7-6 wins.
 
Matt Hillsinger (Bowie, Md., Archbishop Spalding) went 6-for-9 in the doubleheader to lead the Highlanders (1-5), who have lost four straight.   Georgia Southern improved to 5-1 with the sweep.
 
GAME 1: GEORGIA SOUTHERN 7, RADFORD 6
 
Radford scored three runs in the top of the ninth to take a 6-4 lead, but Georgia Southern countered with three in the home half to walk off with the win.
 
Hillsinger and Matt Mack (Davidsonville, Md., St. John's College H.S.) had three hits each for the Highlanders, and Ryan Burgess (Richmond, Va., Steward School) drove in runs in the first and ninth innings to lead the way.
 
Victor Roache, the nation's leading home run hitter a year ago, went 3-for-4 with two RBIs – he singled home runs in the third and ninth.   Chase Griffin went 2-for-4 and hit a sixth-inning solo homer that gave the Eagles a 4-1 lead.  Michael Burruss scored three times and walked twice.
 
The Highlanders rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the final two innings to go ahead.    In the eighth, Hillsinger's leadoff single turned into a run on Mack's RBI double down the left field line.  He went to third on the throw in from the outfield, them came home on a Cory Turner (Manassas, Va., Osbourn) sacrifice fly to make it a 4-3 game.
 
Radford got the rest of their runs in the ninth when back-to-back one-out singles by Josh Gardiner (Culpeper, Va., Eastern View) and Zach Costello (South Riding, Va., Paul VI) set the table for Jeff Kemp (Bowie, Md., Archbishop Spalding), who knocked in Gardiner to tie the game at 4-4.   The Highlanders added two more runs on back-to-back trips to the plate when Hillsinger's single scored Costello, and Burgess' ground out brought Kemp all the way in from second. 
 
In the bottom of the ninth, Georgia Southern got a run on an RBI single by Roache with no one out, then loaded the bases with still no one retired.   Abram Williams struck out the next two batters, but Clint Clark's infield single brought in a run, and Ben Morgan was hit by a pitch on the next play to bring in the winning run.
 
In a pitching matchup of prospects, Georgia Southern's Chris Beck lasted seven innings and struck out five, while Radford's Eddie Butler (Cheapeake, Va., Greenbrier Christian) went five innings, struck out four but walked six batters.   Sam Howard retired the final two batters in the ninth to earn the win, while Williams took the loss.
 
GAME 2: GEORGIA SOUTHERN 7, RADFORD 6 (11)
 
Chase Griffin walked with the bases loaded in the 11th inning, as the Eagles picked up a walk-off win in the nightcap.
 
Zac Lenns, who knocked in the tying run in the eighth inning, singled to lead off the 11th, Eric Phillips singled, and T.D. Davis was intentionally walked to set up the winning walk to Griffin and give the Eagles the doubleheader sweep.
 
Both teams had 14 hits each - Georgia Southern committed four errors in the second game.
 
Phillips went 3-for-5 to lead the Eagles and Lenns went 2-for-2 as a replacement for Roache early in the game.
 
Hillsinger and Daniel Wright (Weyers Cave, Va., Fort Defiance) went 3-for-5 and scored twice the Highlanders, while freshman Hunter Higgerson (Chesapeake, Va., Great Bridge) came off the bench and went 3-for-4 with a fifth-inning RBI single.
 
After Georgia Southern struck in the bottom of the first, the Highlanders added runs in the second and third to take a 3-1 lead.  Gardiner's squeeze bunt scored Brett Mollenhauer (Roanoke, Va., Hidden Valley), who singled to lead off the inning, and Wright, who singled with one out, scored on an infield single and an errant throw to third.  Mack knocked home Hillsinger in the third, who had a leadoff hit.
 
After tying the game in the fifth on Higgerson's RBI, Radford added two more in the sixth on a Gardiner RBI double and an RBI groundout by Costello, making it 6-4.
 
Jarret Leverett earned the win (1-0), striking out three of five batters that he faced in an inning and a third, and escaped a jam in the 10, stranding a pair of Radford runners.
 
Jason Patten (Davidsonville, Md., Archbishop Spalding) took the loss (0-2) – he worked the final two innings.
 
The series finale is set for 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.