After falling in the opener of Wednesday’s non-conference doubleheader at East Carolina, 5-0, the Radford softball team was ahead 6-0 in the second game when play was stopped due to rain and lightning in the bottom of the fifth.
The contest could not be restarted due to field conditions and was deemed a “no game”, leaving the Highlanders three outs short of it being official, and recording their first-ever win over the Pirates on their home field.
Radford had recorded 10 hits – by seven different players – in the first five innings of the nightcap. Hunter Mundy, Maggie Rowe and Hannah Medlam each had recorded two, including a home run by Mundy for the sixth Highlander run. Brittany Wratchford, Medlam and Marissa Gagliano had driven in runs with hits during a five-run third inning.
Kayla Huffman, meanwhile, had allowed just two hits in four shutout innings with six strikeouts and one walk.
After a steady drizzle began in the second inning, it started to pour following a lengthy top of the fifth that ended with the Highlanders making intentional outs to speed up play. The umpires stopped it three pitches into the bottom of the inning with lightning in the area, but water had collected on the field before the tarp was put on.
In the first game, East Carolina starter Lydia Ritchie recorded a one-hit shutout with four strikeouts and two walks to claim her 11th win of the season. Ritchie had allowed five runs in 2.1 innings when the teams met last season but she was coming off an injury. It was the first time since March 3 that Radford was held off the scoreboard, a span of 20 games.
Gagliano had the lone hit for the Highlanders, singling through the right side with one out in the sixth inning, while Mundy walked to reach base for the 15th consecutive game. Abby Morrow took the loss, allowing four runs on six hits in three innings with one strikeout.
East Carolina took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Alex Mycek’s 11th home run of the season before adding three runs in the third. Two bloop singles around a double by Meredith Burroughs off the glove of Hannah Medlam in front of the fence in left, scored one run, two hit batters plated another and a flyout to left for a sacrifice fly scored the other.
Lauren Maddrey worked two scoreless innings in relief, with help from two groundball double plays, before ECU capped its scoring in the sixth on a single, stole base and Burroughs’ second double of the game.
Radford begins an eight-game home stand with a three-game series against Charleston Southern this weekend. The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m. and close it out with a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.
— Courtesy of RU Athletics
