UNCG defeats Radford 7-4 to force rubber game
GREENSBORO, N.C. – UNCG jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first two innings and never looked back the rest of the way behind the pitching of Corey Taylor as the Spartans defeated Radford, 7-4, on Saturday afternoon at the UNCG Baseball Stadium.
Taylor moved to 2-0 on the year and dropped his ERA to 0.63 for UNCG (8-1) after pitching five strong innings. The junior allowed only two hits and no runs, while matching his season-high of nine strikeouts.
The Spartans came out and took advantage of an early home run to take the lead. Christian Wolfe led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to left field and two batters later Trevor Edwards took a 2-0 pitch well over the wall in right center to take a 2-0 lead. The home run was Edwards' league-tying sixth of the season in just his ninth game.
UNCG was able to come right back in the second and add to that lead. Zach Leach walked to lead off and moved to second on a sac bunt by Cambric Moye. After Kris Richards reached on an infield single, Nick Chapman tripled to right center to make it a four-run game. Wolfe followed Chapman with a sacrifice fly to left field to score Chapman from third and give the Spartans a 5-0 lead.
The Spartan manufactured a run in the fourth inning to make their lead 6-0. Leach singled to right to lead off and advanced to second on another Moye sac bunt before Richards singled up the middle to score leach from second.
Radford was eventually able to get on the board in the sixth inning thanks to a Spartan miscue. After a leadoff walk, Ryan Burgess reached on an error and another Highlander walked two batters later to load the bases.
After a Spartan pitching change, Josh Gardiner drew a full-count walk to make it 6-1. Zach Costello then hit an infield single to score another run and make it 6-2 with the bases still loaded and only one out. UNCG then got a big play from Nick Chapman as he caught a fly out from Brett Mollenhauer and was able to gun Daniel Wright out at the plate to get out of the inning.
Kris Richards, who went 3-3 on the afternoon with a pair of RBI and runs, belted his third home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh to push the Spartan lead to 7-2.
Radford would add a pair of runs in the top of the ninth, but it would strand the bases loaded as UNCG held on the for 7-4 victory.
The Spartans and Highlanders will play in the rubber game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
AGATE
UNCG 7, Radford 4
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Radford............. 000 002 002 - 4 7 0 (3-7)
UNCG................ 230 100 10X - 7 8 4 (8-1)
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Pitchers: Radford - PETERSON, Mark; BREWER, Derrick(6); WOODS, James(8); LEMASTER, Chase(8) and WRIGHT, Daniel. UNCG - Corey Taylor; Brennen James(6); Zach Furl(6); Dylan Hathcock(6); Dominique Vattuone(8) and Cambric Moye.
Win-Corey Taylor(2-0) Loss-PETERSON, Mark(0-1) T-2:42 A-211
HR UNCG - Trevor Edwards; Kris Richards.
Weather: 57 and cloudy
Furl faced 2 batters in the 6th.
WOODS, J faced 1 batter in the 8th.
- UNCG -