HIGHLANDERS AND FLAMES SQUARE OFF FOR A SPOT IN THE SEMIFINALS

LIVE STATS | ESPN3 BROADCAST VIDEO | RU SPORTS NETWORK AUDIO

ROCK HILL, S.C. - No. 5 seeded Radford (33-22) faces No. 1 seeded Liberty (40-15) in an elimination game Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Winthrop Ballpark with a berth in the semifinals of the 2014 Big South Tournament at stake. The two teams met in the regular season series finale last weekend with the Highlanders taking a pair of games to win the series. The game will be carried live on ESPN3.com, and the audio broadcast is available on the RU Sports Network.

The winner of tonight's game advances to face Winthrop and will need to defeat the Eagles twice on Saturday to advance to Sunday's title game.

Liberty leads the all-time series, 56-33, between the two rivals. The two teams have split the last eight games played in the series. Liberty eliminated RU from last year's tournament, 3-2, after the Highlanders defeated the Flames in the opening round, 6-3. Radford is 3-8 all-time vs. Liberty in Big South Tournament play, and Joe Raccuia is 9-16 as a head coach against the Flames.

Radford is 14-33 all-time in Big South Tournament games, having qualified for the tournament in 17 different seasons. The Highlanders reached the Big South Tournament finals in 1993. Radford has only beaten the top seed in the tournament one time. In 2009, the No. 4 Highlanders defeated No. 1 Coastal Carolina, 11-7.

After yesterday's 5-4 dramatic win over Gardner-Webb, Radford has now. played four straight one-run games (1-3) in the Big South Tournament dating back to the 2013 tourney.

Tyler Costello (0-3, 5.92 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Highlanders, while Parker Bean (7-2, 2.64 ERA) gets the nod for the Flames. Radford handed Bean his second loss of the season in Saturday's regular season finale, 4-2.

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