Historic baseball season comes to an end at Vanderbilt

Radford's record-setting season ended Monday in the Nashville Regional final at Vanderbilt University. The Commodores advanced to the Super Regional round with a 21-0 win over the Highlanders, who finish the season 45-16 achieving nearly too many milestones to list, including the program's first berth in the NCAA Tournament and a pair of regional wins to reach the final.

"I would first and foremost like to thank my team for a record-breaking season," Radford head coach Joe Raccuia said following his team's elimination. "Forty-five wins, not a lot of losses, first place in the regular season, Big South Tournament Championship, and even more proud of the fact that we lost game one against Indiana and bounced back and got into the final. It was disappointing that it finished like this, but that is not going to be the trademark of this season. The trademark of this season is a 45-16 record and separating ourselves from a lot of people at our level."

Vanderbilt scored three times in the top of the first and another two in the second to chase RU starter Mitchell MacKeith (7-5), who took the loss. In all, the Highlanders sent eight pitchers to the mound, including Jeff Maxwell, who made an appearance in an NCAA Tournament game in his final one in a Highlander uniform. It also marked the final game for six other seniors. Patrick Marshall, Hunter Higgerson, and Aaron Scoville collected all three hits on the afternoon for RU. Josh Reavis was named to the regional all-tournament team at catcher, and Brad Keen and Josh Gardiner, who was unable to play in the postseason with an injury, completed their RU careers Monday.