Late Rally Puts Flames Past CSU 5-4

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Charleston Southern took an early lead, but late runs by Liberty pushed the Flames past CSU 5-4 in game one of the three-game series. The Bucs fall to 7-8 with the loss, including a 2-2 Big South mark, while Liberty moved to 10-3 by winning their League opener.

Scotty Radabaugh and Mark Perry led the way offensively for CSU, tallying three hits apiece as CSU out-hit the Flames 14-8 but left 15 runners on base.

CSU wasted no time as Radabaugh continued to live up to being the lead-off man as he started the game with a double. Tom Burkett blasted a two-run homerun to left field, his third long ball of the year.

Casey Brown would put the Flames on the board in the bottom of the third as he homered to left field, cutting the CSU lead to 2-1.

Thanks in large part to a strike out by Markham to leave the bases loaded with Flames in the bottom of the fifth, it would stay 2-1 until the top of the sixth when Jake Cox started a two-out rally with a single through the left side. Mark Perry and Radabaugh would follow with singles of their own as Radabaugh picked up the RBI scoring Cox from second to put the Bucs up 3-1.

Markham would leave the game after five innings of work in which he struck out five and gave up just one run on six hits.

Trouble finally came in the bottom of the seventh inning as two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with one out. Curran Redal singled through the hole on the right side to score one run and a wild pitch scored a second run to tie the game at 3-3. Tyler Thornburg took the mound and ended the inning with a strike out and foul out. Thornburg would eventually take the loss, dropping his record to 3-1 on the season.

Using the momentum from a double play on defense, the Liberty bats put the Flames in front for the first time in the game in the bottom of the eighth. LU took a 5-3 lead as Tyler Bream knocked an RBI triple down the right field line, later scoring on a sacrifice fly by P.J. Jimenez.

With their backs against the wall, the Bucs tried to take advantage of one of three Liberty errors on the day as Brantley Meier reached safely to start the ninth inning after a fielding error by the first baseman. Kory Morian added a single and Perry put an RBI single up the middle to bring CSU to within one, but a ground ball to short ended the CSU threat.

The two teams will take the field again tomorrow afternoon with the first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.