Box Score

The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team lost to Radford Friday night, 1-0, at the Radford University Baseball Stadium in Radford, VA as the game was completed in a swift one hour and 38 minutes.  With the victory, the Highlanders, who are ranked 88th in the country, improve to 19-15 on the season, while the Knights fall to 15-15-1 overall.

Junior Craig Warner (Coral Springs, Fla./Stoneman Douglas) (1-3) was once again on the wrong end of the decision in a pitchers' duel.  In 6.0 innings of work, the righty allowed only one earned run on three hits, while walking none and striking out two.  Freshmen Anthony Calise (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) and Yonah Perline (Dix Hills, N.Y./St. Dominic) pitched the final two innings and did not allow a hit over their one-inning stints.

Radford's Eddie Butler picked up the win on the bump as he went the distance.  The Highlander's ace, who was clocked between 92 and 96 MPH the entire contest, scattered five hits, walked three and struck out eight.

Five different FDU players picked up a hit, and Jeff Kemp collected two of the three Radford hits and scored the games' lone run.

The Knights had a scoring opportunity right out of the gate in the top of the first when senior Matt Holsman (Coral Springs, FL/Stoneman Douglas) led off the game with a single to right-center field and advanced to second on freshman Jordan Ritz (Newport News, Va./Woodside)'s sacrifice bunt.  Butler was able to get the next two batters to leave Holsman stranded in scoring position.

Two innings later, FDU squandered another chance to score.  Freshman Pat McClure (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius ) singled up the middle to start the inning and moved to second on fellow classmate Shane Siebler (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth Area)'s sacrifice bunt.  Holsman followed with a walk to put runners on first and second.  After Ritz struck out for the second out of the inning, senior co-captain Ryan Kresky (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) walked to load the bases.  However, junior Eric Anderson (Allendale, N.J./Northern Highlands) popped up to end the threat.

Warner, who had retired eight batters in a row after allowing a single with one-out in the top of the first, gave up a lead-off triple in the bottom of the fourth to Kemp.  He then scored on Matt Hillsinger's RBI sacrifice fly to put Radford up 1-0.  Warner got the next three batters in order to end the inning.

The top of the sixth looked to be promising for the Knights as Kresky led off the inning with a single.  Two batters later, junior Kyle Weeks (Middle Island, N.Y./Longwood)' one-out single put runners on first and second, but Butler recorded strike outs on the next two batters to end the inning.

FDU could not muster anymore scoring threats over the final three innings as the Highlanders took the opener of the three-game series
1-0.

“This was a terrific ballgame,” Head Coach Gary Puccio said.  “Their pitcher (Butler) gave the best pitching performance that I have seen at FDU on any team at anytime.  He was outstanding.  We gave him a run for his money.  Craig (Warner) pitched terrific.  We have nothing to be ashamed of.  Radford is ranked 88th in the country.  We showed once again why we are a lot closer to being a good team.”

The Knights and the Highlanders will play the second game of their series tomorrow at 4:00 p.m.