Radford…On a cool, cloudy and misting rain evening the Fort Chiswell Pioneers defeated the Radford Bobcats 5-3 in the opener for both squads.

The main offense for the Pioneers was walks and a couple of hit batters. They scored twice in the top of first without a hit. Tanner Bailey, Codey Burkes, Jacob Coake all drew base on balls and then a pitch to score Bailey hit Leighton Dunford. Sean Morgan then walked to score Burkes with one out.

Fort Chiswell would expand their lead to 4-0 in the top of the third as Chance Davis doubled. Coake and Morgan both walked to load the bases. Aaron Crawford then singled to knock in both Davis and Coake.

Radford would get one run back in the bottom of the their third as Ty Hamblin singled and scored on a Conner Phillips single.

The Pioneers would answer with a single run in the top of the fourth when Bailey walked, moved to second on a ground out, and later scored on a Davis ground out to take a 5-1 lead.

Radford would battle back with a run in the bottom of the fifth as Hamblin singled and scored on an error with two outs. They would then score again in the sixth as Taylor Newcomer would single to lead the inning off and scored on another Pioneer error. Radford would have the tying runs on, but couldn’t get them in as the game ended.

Radford head coach Greg Ridpath said, ”We walked too many batters. We didn’t play and need to straighten all of that out.”

Fort Chiswell coach Derrick Jackson remarked, ”We didn’t knock the cover off the ball. We made too many mistakes and we need to improve.”

Fort Chiswell will play Tuesday at Graham and Radford will be home Wednesday against Craig Co.

 

R H E LOB

Fort Chiswell 5 3 3 8

 

Radford 3 6 1 9

 

 

FC – WP – Davis

 

Rad – LP – Phillips