CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Charleston Southern softball team closed out its 2011 regular season with a hard-fought, 3-2 setback in nine innings to Big South Regular Season Champion Radford Sunday, May 8 at Buccaneer Field. Both teams scored a single run in the eighth inning, but a Nicholle Beall RBI single provided the difference in the 3-2 final score.

CSU honored its three seniors, Kimberly Hobbs, Erin Kegley and Sondra Vetter, prior to Sunday's game.

Charleston Southern earned the series victory with a sweep of Saturday's doubleheader. The Bucs finish their regular season with a 24-31 record, including program-record-tying 10-8 Big South standing. Radford ends the campaign at 35-19, 14-4 in Big South play.

In the final Conference standings, CSU ends the season in a third-place tie with Presbyterian College. PC wins the head-to-head tiebreaker, leaving the Bucs with the fourth seed in the Big South Tournament. The Buccaneers will open postseason play against fifth-seeded Coastal Carolina Thursday, May 12 at 3 p.m. in Rock Hill.

CSU's Kimberly Hobbs (13-13) pitched eight innings in her final game at Buccaneer Field, allowing three runs on nine hits while striking out four. Morgan Dowdy got three outs in relief in the ninth. Stephanie Dameron (15-5) earned her 15th win of the season, yielding two runs, one earned, in eight and one-thirds innings. Chelsea Kelley recorded the save, her first of the year.

Megan Lombard batted 3-for-4 to lead CSU. Jana Matthews hit an RBI single in the eighth and Melissa Adams recorded a sacrifice fly. Kristin Kelleher registered two key sacrifice bunts, while Hayes Holdsworth also sacrificed one runner. Trea Steele doubled and scored in the fifth.

Four Highlanders registered multiple hits, led by Nichole Beall's 3-for-4, two RBI game. Kristin Shifflett, Shannon Keefe and Michelle Beall each posted two hits.

Radford scored the game's first run in the top of the third inning, as Shifflett singled with two outs and was driven in by Nichole Beall for a 1-0 RU lead.

Lombard got CSU's first hit of the game with a single in the bottom of the fourth, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kelleher. After a walk to Erin Kegley, Radford made a pair of fine fielding plays to end the threat.

Hobbs worked through trouble in the fifth, allowing CSU to tie the ballgame at 1-1 in the bottom of the frame. Steele led off with a double, and a Holdsworth sac bunt advanced Steele to third. Adams then flew to left, and Steele raced home, sliding the beat the tag for a tie score.

A Michelle Beall single served as the only hit in the sixth and seventh innings combined, and the teams went to extra innings.

Nicholle Beall singled to open the top of the eighth inning and went to second on a sac bunt by Taylor Cunningham. Keefe drove Beall in with a single for a 2-1 lead and advanced to second on the throw. Hobbs retired the last two batters of the inning, bringing CSU to bat.

Ari Tedesco reached on an error by the third baseman, and then Lombard singled. Both runners moved up one base when Kelleher sacrificed for the second time. Radford intentionally walked Kegley. Matthews came through with a two-out RBI single, but Courtney Konyk was thrown out at the plate, resulting in a 2-2 tie and another inning.

Madden doubled as the first batter in the ninth inning. Dowdy then came on in relief and struck out the first batter she faced. A single put runners at first and third. Shifflett then grounded out to third. With runners on second and third and two outs, CSU elected to intentionally walk Nichole Beall. The fourth pitch on the outside was hit up the middle by Beall for an RBI base hit. A Cunningham flyout ended the half inning with RU ahead, 3-2.

Stephanie Sbardella laced a one-out single down the left field line in the bottom of the ninth. Lizzy Olmstead pinch ran for Sbardella. With two outs, Tedesco grounded a slow roller toward the second baseman, and a collision ensued, with Olmstead being called out for interference, ending the game, 3-2 in RU's favor.

Game Highlights

The Buccaneers will next head to the Big South Softball Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting, held Thursday, May 12 through Saturday May 14 in Rock Hill, S.C. CSU will face No. 5 seed Coastal Carolina in the first round, a game which is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.