SPARTANBURG, S.C. – For the first time in the month of April the USC Upstate Spartan softball team will be playing inside the friendly confines of Cyrill Softball Stadium as they face-off against Radford University on April 10-11.
 
This will be the seventh ever meeting between USC Upstate and Radford dating back to the first meeting in 2015. The Spartans are 6-0 all-time against the Highlanders and they hold a 4-0 record inside Cyrill Stadium. USC Upstate has never made the journey up to Radford as the other two meetings have come at neutral site venues.
 
The last time these two teams met USC Upstate defeated Radford 5-0 in the Big South Tournament. Sarah Price (Landrum, S.C.) is the only current member of the Upstate program to record a hit in the contest. Former Spartans Brittany Case, Alicia Dorgan and Kayla Hussey all paced the Spartans offense with a pair of hits against the Highlanders.
 
This season USC Upstate is 17-9 overall on the season and 6-0 in Big South Conference action. The Spartans are coming off a split against Furman on Wednesday evening and they are just 1-3 on the week after being swept by Western Carolina on Monday afternoon.
 
In the first game of the double-header against Furman on Wednesday night the Spartans pounded out a school record 20 hits against the Paladins on the way to an 8-4 extra innings win. Price and Madison Lanoux (Fleming Island, Fla.) each had four hits in the game, while Tiffany Domingue (York, S.C.) hit a pair of homeruns to record four RBI's in the game.
 
Over the past week the Spartans bats have started to heat up, Price is batting .588 on the week with an even 10 hits. Savannah Grigsby (Elgin, S.C.) is batting .467 with seven hits and the sophomore outfielder hit her first career homerun on Monday afternoon at Western Carolina. Domingue has made herself known this week with a .385 batting average with five hits, two homeruns and five RBI's. The freshman is currently slugging .846 for the week.
 
USC Upstate is returning home for the first time since a March 21^st win over Presbyterian College. The Spartans are 11-1 at home this season and they are 52-3 at home since the start of the 2019 regular season. If the Spartans are able to sweep the Highlanders this weekend they will pick-up their 400^th win inside Cyrill Softball Stadium since its opening in 2002.  
 
Radford is 12-20 overall this season but 5-1 in Big South Conference action. The Highlanders currently rank third in the Big South standings, despite losing their last six games. Over the six game losing streak, the Highlanders have lost to Western Carolina, Appalachian State and James Madison. In Big South games, Radford is currently on a five game winning streak with wins over Charleston Southern and sweep over preseason favorite Gardner-Webb.
 
Sydney Fisher and Riley Oakes lead the Highlanders offense, with both players hitting over .350 this season. Fisher leads the team in bating average .363, total hits 29, doubles 6 and on-base percentage .427. Oakes is batting .350 on the team and has recorded 21 total hits this season. Madison Canady is the only other Highlander batting above .300 and she is tied for the team lead in RBI's with 16 on the season.
 
A combination of Oakes, Jessie Marvin and Skylar Dehart will start in the circle for the Highlanders. As a staff, Radford has a team earned run average of 4.94, giving up 108 earned runs and have struck out 77 batters. Opponents are hitting .301 against the Highlanders staff.
 
Livestats and a recap following the days action can be found on upstatespartans.com.
 
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