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Radford Knocks Off Virginia
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April 5, 2001
RADFORD – The Highlanders scored five runs in the first three innings and held on for 6-5 win over Virginia Thursday afternoon in non-conference baseball action at the Dedmon Center.
The win lifts Radford’s record to 9-16 while the Cavaliers fall to 17-14.
Dave Eddinger went 6.2 innings and struck out three and gave-up four hits to up his record to 2-5. The junior became the first pitcher in school history to beat two ACC schools in the same season. On March 4, he beat Duke 2-1.
The Highlanders opened the scoring in the second inning when Bobby Ryan scored on catcher’s Mark Ruegget throwing error then Daryl Douglass scored on a passed ball giving Radford a 2-0 edge.
In the third inning, Radford tacked on three more runs. Douglass singled home Jeff Swidrak to give the home team 3-0 edge. Later in the inning, Tom Van Hoose’s two-out two run single drove home Douglass and Ryan as the Highlanders took a 5-0 lead.
Virginia chipped away at their deficit when Mark Rueffert deposited Eddinger’s offering over the leftcenter field wall for to bring the Cavaliers within 5-1 after their fourth inning. Virginia scored two unearned runs with two-outs in the fifth inning when David Stone and Doug Vroman scored on Matt DiAngelo’s fielding error.
Clinging to a 5-3 lead in the seventh inning, Keith Brunst hit his team leading ninth homerun of the year with a solo shot just inside the leftfield foul poll to up the Highlanders advantage to 6-3.
Virginia rallied with two more unearned run in the ninth inning when Chris Herald dropped Robert Word’s line-drive shot near the foul line in rightfield to score Vroman and Rob Newton with two-outs. Ryan Speier struck out Eric Christensen with men on first and third to earn his third save of the season.
Ryan went 2-for-4 with two runs scored to help the Highlander attack. Brunst also posted a 2-for-4 effort in the victory.
For the Cavaliers, Rueffert went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
Virginia will return to action on April 6-8 when the Cavaliers face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in a three-game ACC series. UVa will play Wake Forest on Friday, April 6th at 3:00 p.m., Saturday, April 7th at 1:30 p.m. and on Sunday, March 8th at 1:30 p.m. All three contests will be played at Hooks Stadium on the campus of Wake Forest University.