No. 5 Radford Stuns No. 1 Winthrop, Moves to 2-0
For the second time in the last three years, Radford advanced to the Big South Baseball Championships winner's bracket finale as the Highlanders used a seven-run fourth inning to take a 7-1 Friday night victory over top-seeded Winthrop.
With the win, Radford will now play the winner of No. 6 UNC Asheville/No. 7 Gardner-Webb Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., as the winner's bracket finale will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.
The seven-run inning saw Radford send 11 batters to the plate, which resulted in five hits and two hit by pitches. In the inning,
Luke Wise and
Kyle Butler provided a pair of two-run base hits.
Radford's monstrous inning fueled a lights-out pitching performance by
Danny Hrbek as the senior only allowed five hits and one run over seven strong innings. The lone Winthrop run came on a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth off the bat of Mitch Spires.
Hrbek tallied a career-high nine strikeouts, walking only one batter and hitting another in his fifth win of 2017. The Effort, Pa., native lowered his season ERA to 4.42 after allowing less than two earned runs for the fifth time on the season.
Radford managed two hits in the first three innings, but the two runners were stranded on base as the flood gates opened for the Highlanders in the fourth frame.
Jonathan Gonzalez kicked off the inning with a single up the middle as
Spencer Horwitz walked and
Anthony Miano was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Working a 3-2 count,
Clayton Baine was hit by the sixth pitch of the at bat, resulting in the first run of the game.
Making only his fifth career start,
David Laird laid down a squeeze bunt to Winthrop pitcher Colten Rendon, who held onto the ball as no play was available for the right-hander. The RBI bunt single gave the frosh his third on the season.
Leading 2-0, Wise extended the lead to four as the redshirt-junior ripped a 0-1 pitch down the left field line as Miano and Baine hustled home. Butler followed with another two-run base hit with a single up the middle, pushing the lead to 6-0 as the Radford faithful erupted.
Winthrop went to its bullpen after the Highlanders roughed up the Big South's Freshman of the Year for six hits and seven runs. Daniel Willcutt came out of the bullpen to retire
Matt Roth swinging for the second out of the inning.
Leading the inning off with a ground out to the pitcher, Hrbek helped his own cause with a double to right-center, scoring Butler all the way from first base.
Willcutt got the Eagles out of the inning with a strikeout and dominated the Highlander bats for the next 5.2 innings. Radford only managed two more hits off Willcutt, striking out eight times.
Hrbek showed why you want a veteran presence on the mound in postseason play as the Eagles loaded the bases on the righty in the seventh inning. Commanding a 7-1 lead and facing his toughest situation on the night, Hrbek forced a three-pitch fly out to left field, ending the Eagles threat.
The senior struck out the side in the second and struck out as many as four in a row in the showing. The nine strikeouts break Hrbek's previous career high of eight set on March 4 in his nine-inning no-hitter. The showing marked the ninth time on the season that he has yielded less than two walks in a start.
Austin Gerber relieved Hrbek in the eighth, allowing only two base runners over the final two frames as the Highlanders advanced to the winner's bracket finale with a 7-1 victory.