RADFORD TAKES ON CHARLESTON SOUTHERN IN HOME WEEKEND SERIES

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SETTING THE STAGE

Opponent: Charleston Southern
Series: Series Tied 35-35
Location: Carter Memorial Stadium (Radford, Va.)
The Highlanders welcome the Buccaneers to Carter Memorial Stadium for the first time since 2015.
The series is knotted at 35 with Charleston Southern sweeping the 2017 meeting. Radford swept the 2015 home meeting.
In games played inside Carter Memorial Series, the series is tied at 17.
Since 2011, Charleston Southern has taken three out of the four series played.
There have been seven sweeps in the all-time matchup with Radford taking four of them.
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ON THE HILL
Friday, April 20 – 6 p.m.
LHP Hunter Williams (1-3, 4.95) vs. RHP Evan Nations (1-1, 3.62)
Saturday, April 21 – 4 p.m.
RHP Austin Ross (6-3, 3.29) vs. RHP Tyler Weekley (1-6, 4.93)
Sunday, April 22 – 2 p.m.
RHP Ryan Sande (0-1, 4.25) vs. LHP Cody Maw (2-1, 4.19)

HIGHLANDER HIGHLIGHTS

Current record: (15-21) | Home: (5-7) | Away: (10-12) | Neutral (0-2)
Big South (6-9)
Streak: W3
With three straight wins, Radford has matched its longest winning streak of the season, which came March 9-10.
Radford avenged its early season loss to Virginia Tech with a 12-11 walk-off win on Tuesday via a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth.
The walk-off is the second inside Carter Memorial Stadium this season in non-conference action as the Highlanders handed Youngstown State a 4-3 loss on March 9 with a two-run inside the park home run.
In the win, Matt Roth continued his torrid pace with a 4 for 5 effort at the plate for a career mark in hits. Picking up his 13th multi-hit game of the season on his career day, Radford now has five four-hit games by a player.
Increasing his hitting streak and on-base streak to 10 straight, Roth added two RBIs, giving him 15 of his team leading 26 RBIs in the last 10 games.
During the stretch, Roth is 19 for 42 at the plate as he has raised his average to .310 from .230 over the stretch.
Averaging 5.8 runs per game, Radford is hitting .232 in RBI opportunities, picking up 35 hits in the situation over the last 10 games.
Radford leadoff batters have reached base safely 42.1 percent of the time this season. The Highlanders have placed at least six leadoff guys on base 11 times on the season.
Six different Highlanders have double-digit RBIs on the season with Spencer Horwitz and Roth leading the way with 26. Joining Horwitz with 20-plus RBIs is Colby Higgerson (21) and Kyle Butler (21).
Roth (14) and Horwitz (13) follow Andrew Szamski (16) in extra-base hits on the year, while the duo is tied for the team lead with five home runs.
Butler, Szamski, Roth and Horwitz lead the Highlanders with five multi-RBI games.
In his last 91 games played, Kyle Butler has 38 multi-hit games with 15 this season to lead the team.
With a .402 on-base percentage, Butler has reached base safely in 22 straight, while collecting a hit in 11 consecutive games. The 2017 season saw Butler put together a 20-game streak and a 10-game hitting streak.
Roth follows Butler with 13 multi-hit games, seven of which have come in the last 10 games, stringing together a 10-game hitting streak.
Also, streaking is Straton Podaras holds a 16-game on-base streak and Carlin Christian follows with a 15-gamer.
Tied for fifth in the Big South, Podaras has been hit by a pitch nine times on the season, while Butler follows with six. As a team, Radford ranks third in the league with 42 hit by pitches.
Radford has tallied 89 extra-base hits on the season, ranking 14^th nationally with 14 triples.
As a team, Radford has 28 sacrifice bunts, ranking 27^nd nationally. Higgerson has three games with two sacrifice bunts as his seven sac bunts is tied for 40^th in the country.
On the base paths, Radford is 54 for 80, which ranks as third most steals in the league.
Last weekend at Winthrop, Radford was 8 for 14 on the bases with three Highlanders swiping two bases each.
Fourteen different Highlanders have swiped a base this season with 10 swiping three-plus.
Butler is one of 11 Big South players to swipe 10-plus bases as he is 10 for 13 on the base path.
Opposing teams have outscored Radford 33-14 in the first inning, while the Highlanders have battled back in the second with a 32-19 edge.
The Highlanders have scored in the first inning in four of their last eight games.
Radford has plated 37 runs in the fourth for the most in any frame.
Highlander pitchers have struck out a Big South low 220 batters in 320.0 frames.
Striking out 11 batters in 7.1 frames at Winthrop on April 14, Austin Ross one of a select few pitchers in the country that lead their team in most strikeouts as a starter and reliever. Ross punched out eight against Virginia Tech in a relief outing earlier in the season.
Ross ranks tied for the league in wins with a 6-3 clip, while ranking fifth with a 3.29 ERA.
Walking only seven batters in 41.0 frames, Ross is 58^th nationally with 1.54 walks allowed per nine innings. He also comes in at 46^th with a 0.95 WHIP.
Leading the conference in those categories, Ross also ranks 37^th in the land with a 6.29 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which is the best in the Big South.
After allowing 11 hits in 23 at bats to Virginia on April 11, Radford has held opposing southpaws to a 11 for 57 in the last four games.
On the season, opposing left-handers are hitting .259 against Radford pitching.
Redshirt senior southpaw Mack Krupp has held opposing lefties to a .154 clip with six hits in 39 at bats. Ross holds a .226 average, limiting them to 12 hits in 53 at bats.
Krupp leads the Radford bullpen with a 3.69 ERA, holding opposing bats to a .243 clip.
Having started five of the 10 games he's appeared in, Krupp commands a 1.54 ERA in 11.2 innings of relief.

SCOUTING CHARLESTON SOUTHERN

Current record: (12-27) | Home: (6-16) | Away: (6-11)
Big South (3-12)
Streak: W1
Charleston Southern had lost eight straight until a 7-6 walk-off home run off the bat of Josh Litchfield.
The Buccaneers three Big South wins have come against Longwood (twice) and one versus Presbyterian. The win over the Blue Hose came on the road.
With a .229 team batting average, Mike Sconzo is the lone Buc hitting over .300 with a .324 batting clip.
Sconzo ranks eighth in the league with 47 hits, while leading the team with 21 runs and 19 RBIs.
The Buccaneers have seven players with 20-plus hits, including two with 30-plus.
With only 14 home runs hit, Derek Horton paces the team with five homers.
Possessing a 5.21 team ERA, Charleston Southern's pitching staff has struck out 341 batters in 343.2 innings, walking a league-low 109 batters.
The Bucs' staff ranks seventh nationally with a 3.13 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 10^th in country with 2.85 walks per nine innings.
Eddie Hiott leads the league with 20 appearances, holding a 3-2 record with a 4.05 ERA.
Out of the bullpen, Daniel Johnson has struck out 49 batters in 38.1 frames.
Buccaneer pitchers have surrendered 100 extra-base hits, including a league-leading 53 home runs.

ON DECK

The lone road game in Radford's back-to-back home weekends is at ETSU on April 24 as the Highlanders close out the midweek series with the Buccaneers at 6 p.m., inside Thomas Stadium.
ETSU won the first game of the series on April 4, breaking an 8-8 tie in the eighth for a 9-8 victory.
The Buccaneers scored the first seven runs of the game in the first three innings, before answering with seven straight to knot the game.
ETSU leads the all-time series 26-19.
Radford's last road win in the series came on April 23, 2014 in a 7-6 victory.

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