Highlanders Sweep Lady Buccaneers on the Road

Game One Box
Game Two Box

Charleston, S.C. - Ashley Smith's (Roanoke, Va.) homer in the eighth inning of game two propelled Radford to a pair of tough road wins as they swept Charleston Southern, 4-2 and 6-5 in their Big South Conference opener in softball action. A pair of rally attempts by the Lady Buccaneers fell short in both wins.

In game one, Radford jumped out to a 4-1 lead after six innings of play. Kerry Grimm singled in the bottom of the sixth inning to bring the Lady Bucs to within two. However, the Lady managed to get three batters on base in the bottom of the seventh inning, but a pop out and a wild 1-2-5 double play secured the game for RU. The Lady Bucs left nine batters on base in game one.

The Highlanders once again jumped out to an early lead in game two, scoring four runs in the first inning. However, Radford would fail to score again for six more innings. CSU managed to chip away at the RU lead in the fourth inning as Kelly Backert, who reached on a double, scored on one of two errors by Radford. A pair of triples in the fifth by Backert and Lori Langford drove in two more runs for CSU. Backert again singled in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 4-4.

After Smith's first career homer, CSU mounted another rally to produce one run in the extra inning on a single by Jen Foster.

CSU falls to 12-32 on the season and 1-3 in the Big South, while Radford improves to 9-28 on the year and 2-0 in conference play.

Radford will conclude their "beach" trip with a doubleheader against Coastal Carolina at 2 p.m.