FARMVILLE, Va. – The Radford baseball program suffered a setback to begin its final Big South series of the regular season in a hard fought 5-4 loss to Longwood inside Buddy Bolding Stadium on Thursday night.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Radford – 4, Longwood – 5
LOCATION: Buddy Bolding Stadium (Farmville, Virginia)
RECORDS: Radford 27-24 (13-9 Big South), Longwood 12-38 (6-16 Big South)
THE BREAKDOWN
- Eight Radford student-athletes finished with a hit in the contest.
- Two Highlanders also posted multi-hit efforts.
- Both
Jhonkeanu Perez and
Eli Hudgins led the way with two hits apiece in the contest, respectively. Perez went 2-for-5 with a RBI while Hudgins chipped in a 2-for-4 effort with a run batted in and a double.
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Breckin Nace added a 1-for-3 evening at the dish with the other Radford RBI of the game.
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James Ward (1-for-4),
Mason Self (1-for-4) and
Noah Toole (1-for-3) all came around to score a single time.
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Hunter Keen (1-for-5) and
Tyler Kehoe (1-for-4) also added base knocks.
- Keen, Kehoe and Toole all stolen a base.
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Jaxon Kehoe and
Andrew Steinhaus were perfect in relief. Kehoe fired 1.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts while Steinhaus mowed down four batters in his two scoreless frames. Neither pitcher allowed a single hit against.
- To go with Nace's seven punch outs, Radford recorded 14 outs via the strikeout (good for 58.3 percent of Longwood's outs).
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Radford struck first with three runs in the top of the third to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Nace and Hudgins both laced RBI singles, which was followed by a Ward run off a throwing error to give the Highlanders the early edge.
- Perez added a RBI single of his own in the top of the fourth to extend the Radford advantage to 4-0.
- Longwood answered back with two runs in the bottom half of the frame and another three in the fifth to take a 5-4 edge.
- That is all the Lancers would need as the Highlanders couldn't push another runner across over the final four innings. Radford posted three hits and had two runners in scoring position over the stretch, but Longwood ultimately was able to escape with the 5-4 win.
NEXT UP
The two sides will meet once again for game two of the series on Friday, May 16. First pitch is set for 2 PM ET from Buddy Bolding Stadium. The conference clash will also be
played in front of a national audience on ESPN+.
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