NORFOLK, Va. – Radford earned a pair of wins over the Norfolk State softball team on Wednesday afternoon in non-conference action at the NSU Softball Field. Along the way, junior
Kylee Lopez tied NSU's single season home run record.
She hit her 12
th long ball of the year in game 2, an 8-3 Highlander victory. Lopez tied the record held by Lekita Wilson, who also had 12 home runs during the 1997 season, the last year in Division II for the Spartans. Radford also took the first game of the day by a 7-1 margin.
Norfolk State (19-26) finished with nine hits in the second game, but the Spartans were done in by nine errors on the afternoon. Seven of the 15 runs scored by the Highlanders were unearned.
Radford (24-15) scored all seven of its first-game runs in the first three innings of play. Senior
Megan Przeslawski, meanwhile, pitched five innings in relief and allowed just four hits and one unearned run for the Spartans.
NSU, however, had two errors in the first inning that led to the first two Radford runs. The Highlanders then added two more in the second inning on an RBI double and sac fly for a 4-0 lead.
They completed their scoring in the third inning with three more runs. Maggie Rowe hit a two-run homer, and Radford added another sac fly for a 7-0 advantage. Rowe finished 2-for-3 with three RBI.
The Spartans scored their lone run in the fifth. Przeslawski doubled to lead off the inning and eventually scored on a single from freshman
Tuli Iosefa.
Lopez had a pair of hits in the second game, a contest in which the Spartans led 3-0 before the Highlanders mounted their comeback. Lopez hit a two-out pitch in the first inning over the left field fence for her record-tying shot.
NSU added two more runs in the second inning. Senior
Seana Moriarty hit an infield single before freshman
Kayla Porter doubled her home. Porter than scored on another single from freshman
Jazzmaine Hammond.
Moriarty and Hammond each had two hits in the game along with Lopez.
The Highlanders, however, scored three runs in the fourth inning to start their comeback. Brianna Mills' three-run homer with two outs got things started. An inning later, an error on NSU in the fifth allowed Radford to take the lead for good.
Up 4-3, the Highlanders scored four more in the sixth to pull away. Three of those runs scored on one play when Marissa Gagliano singled with the bases loaded and then went to third on an outfielder error by the Spartans.
Jessie Marvin (2-2) earned the win in game 1 for Radford, pitching all seven innings and allowing four hits and one earned run. In the second contest, Abby Morrow (15-9) got the win after scattering five hits in five scoreless innings of relief.
The Spartans will have the weekend off before hosting Longwood on Tuesday at 4 p.m. for their next games of the season.