It wasn't the end of the season that the Radford Highlanders were hoping for, but it's where we are and I think they are still going to be in a good place to make it to the conference tournament. They played their final series of the regular season this past weekend down in Rock Hill South Carolina about three hours away from their Virginia campus.
Things started off pretty good on Friday with a nice 1 to 0 win over the Eagles, but unfortunately, things didn't quite go their way on Saturday during the double header. On Saturday they ended up falling 4 to 3 and then 7 to 4 against the team that knocked them out of the conference tournament last year. Hopefully they can get a little bit of reverse karma and do the same thing to them this year.
I think with the way this worked out, Winthrop ended up being the top team in the Big South for the regular season. You might remember I said last week that the top five teams get to make it to the conference tournament at the end of the season. With Radford sitting in the number three spot right now, that means they should be pretty much guaranteed a spot in the tournament. However, here is the kicker. Generally, if you are the winner of your conference tournament, you automatically get a bid to play in the national tournament.
However, if you have a losing record, you are not able to play in the national tournament. Kind of messed up right? So let's say Gardner Webb with a record of 8 and 10 in the regular season was somehow able to run the tournament and become the conference tournament champ. I don't think they would be able to play in the national tournament according to the rules.
With a 10 and 8 record on the season, Radford should still be okay.
Right now the final standings put Winthrop in the tournament followed by USC Upstate, then Radford, Presbyterian, and finally Gardner-Webb. I just hope the ladies bats can get going for the post season. As you have seen from a lot of their scores, pitching hasn't been an issue for them, but offense has. They haven't been getting the run production they need or they have been leaving a lot of runners on base.
They need to fix that. Personally, I think it would help if they got my niece in the game more, but I am clearly biased!
Either way, the Big South tournament starts up on May 6th and I am really looking forward to seeing how they do. It should be double elimination format, so that gives them a little bit of wiggle room.
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