April 22, 2014
Box Score
RADFORD, Va. - Maicie Hahn hit her first career home run in the eighth inning to give the Coastal Carolina softball team a 6-5 victory over Radford in the first game of the teams' Big South Conference doubleheader on Tuesday. Radford came back to take the second game 4-1 and earn the split.
The Chanticleers rallied from a 5-2 deficit in a back and forth opener, tied their season-high winning streak of five games and notched their first victory of the season when its opponent scored more than two runs.
Coastal is now 34-14 overall and remained in first place in the conference at 16-4. Radford (20-21 overall) is now 12-5 in Big South play.
Hahn was one of five Chants to record two hits in the first game, along with Bri Chiusano, Kiana Quolas, Jessie Winans and Sara Rasley. Coastal totaled 12 hits as a team off two Radford pitchers.
The Chanticleers took a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning. Chiusano led off with an infield single to the shortstop, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Quolas, stole third and scored on an RBI single down the left-field line by Amanda Daneker.
Radford's Jessie Hutchens quickly tied it at 1-1 on her 15th home run of the season with two outs in the bottom of the inning.
The Chants then regained the one-run advantage in the third. Quolas hit a leadoff double to the left-field corner. Morgan Noad and Daneker then hit consecutive groundballs to the second baseman to plate the run.
However, the Highlanders responded with four runs on three hits in the bottom of the inning to take the 5-2 lead. Back-to-back hit batters set the inning up and were followed by an RBI single by Whitney Davis, an RBI double by Casey Burns and a two-run triple by Kayla Bishton.
CCU, though, came right back with three runs in the top of the fourth. Bloop singles to left-center by Winans and Rasley got it started. A sacrifice by Hahn moved the runners up, Chisuano then hit an RBI single to right and Quolas followed with an RBI hit to left past the diving third baseman. After Radford's Abby Morrow relieved starter Rachael Walters, Noad's RBI groundout to second tied the game.
The teams then traded missed opportunities over the next three innings. Radford left two runners on base in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth, while Coastal had the go-ahead run at third base and less than two outs in both the sixth and seventh. After Quolas pitched around an error leading off Radford's half of the seventh, Hahn led off the eighth by drilling a 2-0 pitch over the fence in right-center.
Winans, Rasley and Hahn - the 7,8 and 9 hitters in the Chants' lineup combined to go 6 for 11 in the game.
Quolas (22-5) then struck out two batters in a perfect bottom of the eighth of seal the comeback victory. She allowed the five runs on eight hits, struck out nine and walked only one. Morrow took the loss allowing just the final run on four hits.
Radford scored all four of its runs in the second game on three home runs against Ashley Bagwell. Summer Robinson followed a walk with a two-run home run to give the Highlanders a 2-0 lead in the third. Whitney Davis and Kayla Bishton then hit solo shots in the fourth.
Coastal capitalized on two Radford errors to score its only run in the fifth. Winans reached on an error, stole second and scored when the first baseman dropped the throw on a grounder by Chiusano with two outs.
However, Walters, who had allowed five runs on eight hits in three-plus innings of work in the opener, bounced back to limit the Chants to just two hits in a complete-game effort in her second appearance. She struck out eight and walked one.
Quolas has both of the hits for Coastal. Bagwell (12-8) suffered the loss, allowing just five total hits, while striking out 10 and walking one.
The teams will play the rubber game of the series Wednesday at 2 p.m.
