GREENSBORO, N.C. – UNCG pulled within a run in the bottom of the seventh on a home run by Trevor Edwards, but Radford scored three in the ninth to take the series finale 7-3 and claim the weekend series on Sunday afternoon at the UNCG Baseball Stadium.
It marked the first time that the Spartans have lost a weekend series since April 15-17 of last season when UNCG dropped two of three to James Madison.
Tyler Costello (1-0) picked up his first win of the year for Radford (4-7) after pitching 5 2/3 innings and giving up just one run, while scattering seven hits. UNCG's Max Povse was credited with the loss after allowing two runs in four innings of work.
The Highlanders were the first team to get on the board as Jeff Kemp delivered an RBI single to right field in the top of the third to take an early 1-0 lead.
UNCG came right back in the bottom half of the third to knot the game at one apiece. With one out, Christian Wolfe tripled to right center and after a walk and strikeout, Lloyd Enzor hit an RBI single to left field to make it 1-1.
Radford would take the lead for good in the fifth as it pushed three runs across the plate. Zach Costello doubled to lead off the inning and Brett Mollenhauer followed with a walk. After a fly out, Matt Hillsinger doubled to right center to score Costello from second to take a 2-1 lead.
Mollenhauer would then score on a wild pitch to make it 3-1 before Phil Bondi hit an RBI single to right field to give Radford a 4-1 lead it would never relinquish.
It looked as if the Spartans had an answer in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead down to 4-3, but Trevor Edwards' drive to right center was caught at the top of the wall by Zach Costello to keep the score at just 4-1.
Edwards would eventually get his redemption in the seventh inning as Nick Chapman drew a leadoff walk. Two batters later, Edwards took Keith Fritz deep to right field to make it a 4-3 game. The home run was Edwards' league-leading seventh of the season.
Radford would add three runs in the top of the ninth, two of which were unearned, to make the final score 7-3.
The Spartans will face Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the UNCG Baseball Stadium.
AGATE
Radford 7, UNCG 3
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Radford............. 001 030 003 - 7 11 1 (4-7)
UNCG................ 001 000 200 - 3 9 2 (8-2)
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Pitchers: Radford - COSTELLO, Tyler; FRITZ, Keith(6); PATTEN, Jason(8); WILLIAMS, Abram(9) and TRAVERS, Carl. UNCG - Max Povse; Zach Furl(5); Eric Kalbfleisch(5); Lee Gilliam(5); Jonathan Jones(7); Adam Boghosian(8); Dominique Vattuone(9); Wes McBride(9) and Trevor Edwards.
Win-COSTELLO, Tyler(1-0) Loss-Max Povse(1-1) T-3:14 A-193
HR UNCG - Trevor Edwards.
Weather: 50, sunny, Wind: NW 19 mph
Povse faced 1 batter in the 5th.
Gilliam faced 1 batter in the 7th.
- UNCG -
