
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 15, 1994                   TAG: 9405150108
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From staff reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RADFORD OUT OF BIG SOUTH RACE

Radford was eliminated from the Big South Conference baseball championship race Saturday by losing 4-0 and 2-1 in a doubleheader at Maryland-Baltimore County. The losses, coupled with UNC Greensboro's 8-0 win over Campbell on Friday, gave UNCG the league championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA baseball tournament.

The Highlanders (26-25, 17-9) got two solid pitching efforts from Jim Abbott and Jay Hensley, but neither pitcher got offensive support. Radford, the Big South leader in team batting average, managed just four hits off UMBC left-hander Kevin Loewe (7-3) in the first game and scored its only run in the second game on Denny Van Pelt's second-inning home run, his 11th of the season, which tied the Radford single-season home run record set by John Gilbert in 1989.

Hensley (4-2) took the loss in the second game despite tossing a two-hitter.

Duane Filchner's sixth-inning single in game two was his 72nd hit of the season, breaking the previous Radford mark of 71 set by Donnie Just in 1991.

Maryland-Baltimore County is 22-21 and 14-12.

In other college sports:

Rob Gibson and Charlie Gillian combined on a six-hit shutout as Virginia Tech blanked Southern Mississippi 1-0 in a Metro Conference baseball game in Hattiesburg, Miss. The loss dashed the Golden Eagles' chances for the Metro regular-season championship.

A throwing error allowed Tech (28-22, 8-8) to score an unearned run in the third. Gibson (3-2), a left-hander from Salem, struck out eight batters in seven innings before yielding to Gillian, who pitched his way out of jams in the eighth and ninth innings to record his 11th save of the season. Jeremy Williamson (1-2) took the loss for Southern Miss (33-22, 10-7).

In Friday's game, the Golden Eagles scored nine runs in their last three at-bats, five of them coming in the seventh inning, to beat the Hokies 12-4. Bo Durkac's run-scoring triple gave Tech a 3-1 lead in the third, and Kevin Kurilla's fifth-inning home run put the Hokies ahead 4-3 before Southern Miss tied the score with a run in the fifth and took the lead for good with two runs in the seventh.

Dave Hannett of Virginia Tech leads after the first day of competition in the decathlon at the Metro Conference track and field championships in New Orleans.

Hannett compiled 3,591 points after five events. He was first in the 100-meter dash (11.27 seconds) and the long jump (21 feet, 5\ inches). He took second in the shot put (41-3), high jump (6- 3/4) and the 400-meter dash (50.86).

David Norman of Virginia Commonwealth is second entering today's competition with 3,471 points.

Washington and Lee's Marilyn Baker and Julie Ayers lost in singles and doubles play during the NCAA Division III women's tennis championships at Kalamazoo (Mich.) College.

Unseeded Audrey Coates of Hope College upset Baker 6-2, 6-4 in the second round. Baker, the tournament's No. 2 seed, beat Kenyon's Amy Rowland 6-4, 7-5. Julie Ayers suffered a first-round loss to Claire Turchi of Pomona-Pitzer 6-2, 6-2.

The doubles tandem of Baker and Ayers lost 6-2, 7-5 to Becky Mallory and Julie Greenwood of Williams.

by CNB