SOFTBALL SWEEPS DOUBLEHEADER AT WINTHROP, 8-1 & 8-0

Nichole Beall Hits 50th Career HR; Breaks Total Bases Record

BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2
Game 1 Box | Game 2 Box

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Radford hit four home runs, put four crooked innings on the board and limited Winthrop to just one run as the Highlanders (27-14, 11-3 Big South) swept a road doubleheader by the scores of 8-1 and 8-0 on Saturday afternoon from Terry Field.

Senior Vicki Madden launched two of those long balls and finished with six RBI in the two contests, while classmate Nichole Beall hit her 50^th collegiate home run and also broke the program's total bases record with a double in game one. With her long ball, she became just the second player in Big South history to reach this milestone.

The Highlanders only scored in four of the 12 innings, but they put up three and five-run frames in game two and a pair of four-run spots in the opener against the Eagles (15-32, 3-14).

In the circle junior, Jackie Jenkins and freshman Micalah Sacre scattered eight hits (all singles) and allowed a run over 12 innings in a pair of complete game wins.

Jenkins allowed five singles and a run, while Sacre went 2-for-3 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Madden also homered and knocked in three in the game-one victory.

Radford sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the first and took advantage of two Winthrop errors to grab a 4-0 lead. Beall led off with a double, which gave her the program's all-time total bases record of 437, surpassing Kristen Shifflet (2008-11), who set the mark a season ago.

Beall would score on a sac fly by Madden. She reached when the rightfielder dropped the ball and came around on Sacre's RBI single. Two more runs came home on another sac fly by sophomore Jessie Hutchens and a throwing error trying to get the runner at third.

The sixth inning was highlighted by back-to-back long balls by Madden and Sacre that pushed Radford's lead to 8-1. With two outs senior Hannah Ojeda bounced a single up the middle that plated junior Morgan Eye, who doubled with out. Madden stepped up and launched one over the fence in center, followed by Sacre's liner over the right centerfield fence.

A leadoff walk and back-to-back two-out singles, the second by Kristy Noble provided Winthrop with its only run of the game.

In game two, Sacre held Winthrop to three singles and struck out eight, recording her first collegiate shutout. She did not walk a batter and did not reach a three-ball count the entire contest.

Madden struck again in game two lofting a three-run home run in the first for a quick 3-0 Highlander lead.

That would be all Sacre needed as she struck out at least one batter in each inning, including two in the fourth and closed out the game in fashion, fanning the side in the fifth.

Beall's big fly, a three-run shot to left, capped off a five-run third, pushing Radford's lead to 8-0. The Highlanders loaded the bases to start the inning, but a pair of punchouts quickly put two outs on the board. Eye kept the inning alive with a two-run single through the left side, setting up Beall's no doubter to left, the 50^th of her career.

Beall scored twice and knocked in three, while Madden was 2-for-3 with three RBI and a run.

The teams wrap up the series tomorrow with a 2 p.m. contest.

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