Radford…When is a win not a win? Well, the Fort Chiswell Pioneer baseball team found out for themselves. Playing the Radford Bobcats in Radford on a cloudy, cool and damp afternoon, the Pioneers were up 9-4 after three innings.

It had rained just before the first pitch, and it started up again in the top of the second. The Pioneers scored three times in the top of the second, as Dylan Bailey doubled in Hunter Meadows and Brody Crockett. Bailey would cross home on a Bobcat error. The rain stopped again and the game continued but the mound and home plate had become very slick and muddy.

Fort Chiswell would rain runs in the top of the third as they scored six more. Sophomore Leighton Dunford hit a two-run home run over the 400-foot sign in centerfield, and Chance Davis would later hit a grand slam homer over the left field fence.

Radford would come up in the bottom of the third as the rain became a little steadier. By now, the pitcher’s mound and batter’s box had a bag of sand put on them to help dry the areas. The Bobcats got hit from Clint Vaughan; Elijah Duncan drew a base on balls. Justice Marshall would then single to shallow right to load the bases. They would then score twice on two passed balls and score the third one on a wild pitch. Their fourth run was scored on an error from a bad throw to second base. After the third out in the bottom of the third, the umpires got to together with the two head coaches and the game was called due to unplayable, unsafe conditions as the rain was still falling.

The game had gone just three innings and therefore the game will have to start over, as the Pioneers were up 9-4. The game needed to go five full innings before it became an official game.

“The mound and batter’s boxes had gotten too bad to continue,” said Radford head coach Greg Ridpath. “It’s a good way to get an injury and it’s better to stop playing.”

The Pioneers head coach Derrick Jackson remarked, “It had gotten real slick there on the mound and people were slipping and sliding. It’s baseball and things like this happen.“

The two teams will pick this game back up Tuesday, April 12 in the top of the fourth inning at Radford.