No. 3 Radford Stuns No. 2 Longwood, Advances to Semifinals
Survive and advance is often used in the game of basketball, but the Radford softball team adopted that mantra in its 4-1 win over No. 2 Longwood on Thursday afternoon in the second day of the Big South Championship.
The Highlanders set the tone early as
Hunter Mundy delivered a solo home run with two outs in the second inning for the first run of the game.
Hannah Medlam led off the inning with her first hit of the afternoon, a single to left field. The junior was aggressive on the base paths and tried to get into scoring position, but was thrown out trying to swipe second for the second out of the inning.
The same at-bat is when Mundy delivered the solo blast into the trees in left center field and gave Radford a 1-0 lead.
The Lancers fought back and tied the game with back-to-back hits – all with two outs in the third inning. Kaylynn Batten had her lone hit of the day in the third via an infield single. The next batter, and clean-up hitter, Karleigh Donovan delivered a game-tying double to left center field.
Radford was able to get out of the inning with a groundout to third but that began a weather delay that lasted an hour and seven minutes.
Sydney Gay, the Lancer pitcher came out after the delay and retired 10 straight batters until
Lauren Maddrey reached with an infield single and one out in the sixth inning. Then,
Marissa Gagliano hit an infield single and
Sofia Tapia reached to load the bases, still with one out.
Talia Douglas picked up her third RBI of the tournament after she drew a walk that allowed Maddrey to score and gave Radford a 2-1 lead. On the ensuing at-bat, Medlam picked up her second hit of the day and this one was big.
The Bethlehem, Ga., native gave Radford two more insurance runs with a single to center field that scored Gagliano and Tapia. The Highlanders were looking for more, but a bases loaded fly out to Leah Powell in left field avoided the big inning.
Abby Morrow came in and shut the Lancers down in the sixth inning for her third three up, three down inning of the game. She gave up a hit on the first at-bat of the seventh, but bounced back to close out the game and pick up her 22
nd win of the season.
The win is the first win over the Lancers since they joined the Big South and the first since 2012, snapping a 20 game losing streak. It also launches Radford into a winners bracket game against Liberty on Friday at 2:30 p.m., and puts the Highlanders only two wins away from an automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals.