April 14, 2009

BOX SCORE

RADFORD, Va -- Longwood University dropped a 12-5 baseball decision on the road at Radford University of the Big South Conference Tuesday afternoon in Radford.  The Lancers dropped to 20-12 overall while the Highlanders, who rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the sixth inning, improved to 15-14 overall.  Longwood is scheduled to play again on Wednesday, April 15, at VMI of the Big South Conference as well beginning at 5 p.m. in Lexington.
   
At Radford, Longwood fell behind 1-0 as the Highlanders scored a run in the second inning before taking a 2-1 lead in the third following a two-out, two-run home run to left-center field by junior Scott Kimble/Spotsylvania (Spotsylvania) (1-3, 2 RBI).  The Lancers made it 4-1 in the fifth with yet another two-out, two-run home run to left-center field, this time from freshman Richie Palase/Staten Island, N.Y. (Moore Catholic) (1-3, 2 RBI).  Unfortunately, Radford scored two runs in the sixth inning, one unearned courtesy a throwing error, added three more runs (one unearned via an error) in the seventh, and six runs (four unearned after an error and one courtesy a passed ball) in the eighth.  LU added a run in the ninth on an RBI single by freshman Robby Newman/Virginia Beach (Salem) (1-3, RBI) to provide for the final margin.
   
Sophomore Mark Montgomery/Williamsburg (Bruton) (3-3) took the mound loss for the Lancers, yielding six hits and five earned runs with three walks and no strikeouts over the final 3.0 innings in relief.  Also pitching for the Lancers were sophomore starter Luke Townsend/Virginia Beach (Ocean Lakes) [1.0-ip, 0-h, 1-er, 2-bb, 0-k] and freshman Matt Gwaltney/Chesterfield (Matoaca) [4.0-ip, 2-h, 1-er, 4-bb, 0-k].
   
Carl Travers (3-3, RBI)?led Radford with three hits and an RBI, while Will Naylor (2-4, RBI)?added two hits and an RBI, and Brett Mollenhauer (1-5, 4 RBI) contributed a hit and four RBI for the hosts.  Paul DeVito (5-1) earned the pitching win for the Highlanders with the first 8.0 innings, scattering four hits and four earned runs with two walks and eight strikeouts.