Highlanders Hold Off Coastal Rally

CONWAY, S.C. -- Radford baseball held off a Coastal Carolina ninth-inning rally take game two of the three-game series 6-5 Saturday afternoon at Charles Watson Stadium/Vrooman Field.(Box Score)

RU (8-21, 3-5 Big South) starter Justin Morgan improved to 3-4 on the year, pitching 5.2 innings with three strikeouts, six hits and four earned runs. Cory Koliscak went 2.1 innings with four strikeouts to earn his second save. Marrie fell to 3-1, going five innings with five strikeouts and nine hits.

Coastal (24-9, 6-2 Big South) trailed 6-4 going into the bottom of the ninth, but Mike Costanzo opened the inning with a single. He moved to second on a wild pitch. After Danny Morgan struck out, Michael DeJesus doubled over the leftfielder’s head to score Costanzo. Koliscak shut down the rally by striking out Tommy Baldridge and Josh Eachues to end the game.

Radford scored three runs on five hits in the second. The bottom of the Highlander order delivered all day and it was no different in the second frame. With one out, Jesse Ross singled and then went to third on a failed pickoff attempt. John Vellines scored Ross on a groundout to third. Matt Mantione then singled and David Landman doubled him in. Nachion Moore brought Landman in with a single up the middle.

Senior Chris Todd tied the game in the bottom of the third when he hit his second home run of the season, scoring Eachues and sophomore Chris Raber, who reached on a walk and double, respectively.

Radford quickly made it 5-3 in the fourth inning. Landman singled with one out and moved to second on a bunt single by Moore. Alan Ashworth brought Landman in with a single to right and Moore scored on a wild pitch by starter Kevin Marrie.

In the bottom of the fifth, junior Kevin Entsminger started the inning with a hit by pitch. He stole second, moved to third on a Todd single and scored on a sacrifice fly from sophomore Dom Duggan.

Radford’s John Vellines hit a solo shot in the top of the eighth to give the Highlanders a 6-4 lead, a run that would prove crucial to the RU victory.

Todd went 4-for-5 with three runs-batted-in for Coastal. Costanzo, Raber and DeJesus had two hits apiece.

The 7-8-9 hitters for the Highlanders went 8-for-13 with two RBI. Landman was 4-for-4 while Ross, Mantione and Moore had two hits apiece.

Coastal had the leadoff runner on base in five of the nine innings, but couldn’t get that runner across in the seventh or eighth innings.

Coastal and Radford will wrap up the three-game set Sunday at 1:00 pm, in Charles Watson Stadium/Vrooman Field.