Highlanders Fall in Last Inning to Birmingham Southern, 6-5

Radford, Va. – In a back-and-forth affair, Birmingham Southern pushed across two runs in the top of the seventh to take home a 6-5 victory over the Highlanders at Dedmon Center Field. The second game was cancelled in the bottom of the third after hour delay due to the some of the lights going out.

In the top of the seventh, Panther’s Meredith McDow’s RBI single to center with two outs plated Kerri Owens from second with the winning run. Owen’s RBI single with one out tied the game up earlier in the inning. Radford dropped their fifth straight, falling to 6-25, while BSC improves to 8-27. box score

Game one started with the Panthers striking in the first inning. Dawn Treadwell led off the inning with a triple and would score two batters later on a high chopper over third baseman, Ashleigh Brooks (Virginia Beach, Va.). The Highlanders would strike for two runs with two outs in the second when Hallie East (Roanoke, Va.) blooped a two-run bases loaded single to right center.

BSC would regain the lead with a pair of runs in the fourth. RU took the lead right back in the bottom half of the inning. With two out, East and Brooks knocked a run apiece with back-to-back RBI singles, making it 4-3.

After the Panther tied things up in the fifth, the Highlanders regained the lead when Brooks line a triple down the right field line, scoring Kelly Miles (Huntington, Md.) with two out.

Brooks finished the game 2 for 4 with two RBI, while East was 2 for 3 with three RBI. All five RU runs scored with two outs. Leslie Roberts went 3 for 4 for the Panthers.

The Highlanders travel to Blacksburg this weekend for a three-team tournament at Virginia Tech. They will play a pair of games against Gardner-Webb and Virginia Tech. On Friday, they open up against GW at noon and play VT at 4 p.m. and on Saturday 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.