SOFTBALL WINS 30TH; TAKES SERIES FROM GARDNER-WEBB

BOX SCORE
Box Score

RADFORD, Va. – Radford hit a season-high four home runs and received a combined three-hit shutout as the Highlanders (30-18, 14-4 Big South) topped Gardner-Webb 8-0 in six innings to clinch the rubber game of their Big South series on Sunday afternoon from RU Softball Field. The victory is also the 30^th of the year, a mark the program has reached in nine consecutive seasons.

Junior Morgan Eye capped off the long ball fest with a two-run shot to end the contest in the sixth. She finished 1-for-2 with her third homer of the season, three RBI and a run.

Sophomore Jessie Hutchens, senior Nichole Beall and senior Vicki Madden also left the yard for the Highlanders.

Freshman Micalah Sacre and junior Jackie Jenkins combined on Radford's eight shutout of the season. Jenkins (14-8) earned the victory as she allowed two hits in 3.2 innings of relief. Sacre went the first 2.1 frames with two strikeouts, three walks and one hit.

Hutchens put the Highlanders on the board with a one-out home run, her fourth of the season, in the second. They would add a second run in the frame when freshman Jackie Warr stole third and scored on a throwing error to make it 2-0. She ended the day, scoring a career-best three times.

Two more solo shots by Beall and Madden in the third doubled the lead to 4-0. After Beall launched her 13^th of the season to dead center, Madden laced one off the leftfield foul pole for her sixth of the year.

A pair of unearned runs pushed the lead to 6-0 in the fourth. A sac fly by Eye which should have been the third out, plated pinch runner Mo Hepner (Medford, N.J./Shawnee). Warr, thanks to some aggressive base running, also scored on the play when the centerfielder dropped the ball after the catch.

Samantha Meenaghan recorded two of Gardner-Webb's (25-26, 11-10) three hits. Jessica (8-12) Childers suffered the defeat, lasting just 2.1 innings. She allowed four runs (3ER) on four hits with a strikeout. Alyssa Gutierrez surrendered four runs, all unearned, on three hits with punchouts.

Radford will take some time off for exams this week and conclude its regular season next weekend at Charleston Southern in a battle for first place. The teams begin with a doubleheader on Saturday, May 5, followed by the regular season finale on Sunday. First pitches on both days is schedule for 2 p.m.

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