On campus: Conference tournaments

Published 10:15 pm Friday, May 28, 2010

Radford and Virginia Military were bounced out of the Big South Tournament on the baseball diamond Thursday in Rock Hill, S.C.

Radford lost 11-9 to top-seeded and No. 4-ranked nationally Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers scored 10 runs in the second inning to gain a 10-0 lead. The Highlanders (29-26) scored four in the fourth and four in the fifth to come most of the way back, but a two-run deficit was the closest RU got.

Senior Tyren Rivers (Nansemond River) hit a grand slam for RU’s fourth-inning rally. Rivers was 2-for-5 with five RBI on the day.

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Rivers finishes the season with a .309 batting average, six homers, 40 RBI and 33 stolen bases.

VMI (33-22) lost 11-6 to Winthrop to be eliminated. Freshman shortstop Ombri Rivers (Nansemond River) hit .327 with 17 runs for the season. Junior catcher/designated hitter Justin Topping (Nansemond River) hit .257 with 16 RBI.

Boston College finished the ACC Tournament with an 0-3 record after losing 12-10 in 12 innings against Miami on Thursday and 12-2 vs. Florida State Friday.

BC (30-28) still holds hope of an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. The tournament field will be announced Monday.

Junior second baseman Matt Hamlet (Nansemond-Suffolk) is hitting .291 with 45 runs, 26 sacrifices and 13 doubles for the Eagles, primarily from the second spot in BC’s order this year.

Marshall split its first two ball games in the Conference USA Tournament in Houston and still has a shot at making the championship game.

The Thundering Herd lost 11-7 to Houston Wednesday, then defeated Memphis 10-7 Thursday. Marshall played Rice Friday night. Freshman center fielder Isaac Ballou (Nansemond-Suffolk) added a hit and an RBI in the win over Memphis.

Conference USA uses two four-team pools in its tournament. The top team out of each pool plays in the championship game.