LEXINGTON, SC—The No. 5 seed Radford Highlanders erupted for seven runs in the fourth inning and went on to defeat No. 1 seed Winthrop 7-1 in the 2017 Big South Conference Baseball Championship Tournament on Saturday night at Lexington County Baseball Stadium.
Radford (25-30) knocked out Eagle starter and Big South Freshman of the Year Colton Rendon, who breezed through the first three innings, but in the top of the fourth he gave up the seven Highlander runs on five hits and two hit batters before giving way to reliever Daniel Wilcutt. Rendon's record dropped to 7-4. Wilcutt pitched 5.2 scoreless innings and allowed just three hits while striking out seven.
The loss sends Winthrop (32-23) into an elimination game on Saturday against No. 4 seed High Point at 12 noon. That game not be televised and will be played at River Bluff High School in Lexington. If the Eagles win that game they would play Saturday night at Lexington County Stadium.
In the big RU fourth inning, six straight Highlander batters reached base. Jonathan Gonzales got things started with a one-out single. That was followed by a walk to Spencer Horowitz and consecutive hit batters to Anthony Miano and Clayton Baine that forced in Gonzales with the first run. David Laird followed with a single to make it a 2-0 game and Luke Wise doubles to drive home two more runs. Kyle Butler singled to score Laird and Wise to give RU a 6-0 lead. Pitcher Danny Hrbek then helped his own cause by doubling home Butler for the seventh run of the frame.
Winthrop got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run by
Mitch Spires that came off Hrbek who pitched seven strong innings to earn the win and even his record at 5-5. Hrbek allowed five hits and struck out nine Eagles.
He was able to pitch out of a one-out bases loaded jam in the seventh as he fanned
Brandon Fite and got
Matthew Mulkey to fly out to left. Hrbek gave way to relief pitcher Austin Gerber who recorded the final six outs to send Radford into the semifinals on Saturday where it will meet the winner of the No. 7 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 6 UNC Asheville game at 4:00 p.m. on ESPNU.
Here is Saturday's adjusted Big South Baseball Championship Schedule:
Saturday, May 27
Elimination Games
Game 9: No. 7 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 6 UNC Asheville – 10:00am (Lexington County Baseball Stadium – ESPN3)
Game 10: No. 1 Winthrop vs. No. 4 High Point – 12:00pm (River Bluff High School – no TV coverage)
Semifinals – at Lexington County Baseball Stadium
Game 11: No. 5 Radford vs. Winner GWU/AVL – 4:00pm (ESPNU)
Game 12: No. 3 Presbyterian vs. Winner WU/HPU – 45 minutes after Game 11 (ESPN3)
