FARMVILLE, Va. – The Radford baseball program stumbled in its regular-season finale against Longwood at Buddy Bolding Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Highlanders suffered a 15-8 defeat in the continuation game from Friday and again 4-2 in the series finale that followed to close out the regular season.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE (GAME ONE): Radford – 8, Longwood – 15
FINAL SCORE (GAME TWO): Radford – 2, Longwood – 4
LOCATION: Buddy Bolding Stadium (Farmville, Virginia)
RECORDS: Radford 27-26 (13-11 Big South), Longwood 14-38 (8-16 Big South)
GAME ONE BREAKDOWN
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Tyler Kehoe and
Mason Self paced the Highlander offense. Kehoe went 1-for-2 with three RBI, one run scored and a stolen base while Self added a 2-for-3 effort with one home run, one double, three RBI and a run.
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Breckin Nace (2-for-4, one run scored, one double, one walk) and
Tyler Sparrer (1-for-4, one run, one base on balls) also chipped in a run batted in, respectively.
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Eli Hudgins had a strong outing with a 2-for-3 performance that included two runs scored, a two-bagger and a base on balls.
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Jhonkeanu Perez (1-for-6) and
James Ward (two walks) also came around to score a single time.
- Radford got on the board first with a run in both the top of the second and third innings to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Kehoe drove in Hudgins on a sacrifice fly in the second while Nace laced a RBI double to right center in the third.
- Longwood responded back with a five-run bottom of the third to take a 5-2 edge.
- Kehoe again drove in a run off a sac fly in the top of the fourth to make it a 5-3 game.
- The Lacers weren't done there with another three-spot in the bottom of the frame to push their advantage back to 8-3.
- The Highlanders continued to battle with two more runs in the top of the fifth to get back in it at 8-5. Both Sparrer and Kehoe posted a run batted in during the inning.
- The game was then put under a weather delay with two outs in the bottom of the sixth and would be picked back up on Saturday.
- Longwood didn't take long to get things going as the first batter of the continuation blasted a three-run shot to give the Lacers an 11-5 advantage.
- Self and the Highlanders matched the damage with a three-run blast of their own in the top of the seventh to make it a game again at 11-8.
- The Lacers added another run of insurance in the seventh and three more in the eighth to seal the 15-8 victory.
GAME TWO BREAKDOWN
- Both
Jhonkeanu Perez (1-for-4) and
Corbin Grantham (2-for-3, one run scored, one walk) drove in a run batted in for the Highlanders in the second game of the day.
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Brady Whitacre (2-for-4, one double) also came around to score.
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Hunter Keen (2-for-5),
Breckin Nace (1-for-4),
Tyler Kehoe (1-for-2), and
Brady Powell (1-for-2) chipped in base knocks.
- The bullpen shut it down for Radford at the end of the contest.
Mason Self,
Noah Toole,
Drew Stanley and
Andrew Steinhaus all tossed a scoreless frame in relief. The four Highlanders racked up five punch outs and only allowed a single hit against over the final four frames of the game.
- It was Longwood's turn to score first as the Lacers hit a solo shot in the bottom of the first to take an early 1-0 edge.
- The Highlanders got it right back in the top of the second as Grantham poked a RBI single to center field that brought home Whitacre to knot things up at 1-1.
- The Lacers pushed across one run in the third and two more in the fourth to retake a 4-1 advantage.
- Radford continued to chip away with a RBI single up the middle by Perez in the top of the seventh to get the Highlanders right back in it a 4-2.
- The Highlanders would get one run in scoring position in the eighth and brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth, but Longwood was able to lock it down to escape with the 4-2 win.
NEXT UP
Radford will shake it off and turn its full attention to championship season with the upcoming 2025 Big South Championship that gets underway on Wednesday, May 21. The Highlanders are locked into the No. 4 seed for their first post season appearance since the 2019 campaign. Winthrop and High Point are still yet to play at time of release, but due to Radford's sweep of the Eagles earlier this season, the Highlanders took the tiebreaker and cannot by passed by the Winthrop squad with a win by them today..
The No. 4 (Radford) vs. No. 5 (Winthrop) seeds will start the conference tournament at 11 AM ET on Wednesday.
Tickets for the contest can be purchased here and the game will also be played in front of a national audience on ESPN+.
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