The Auburn Tigers improved to 3-1 after a 9-4 win against Jacksonville State following Opening Weekend and will return to the diamond Friday at 3 p.m. to host the Radford Highlanders (2-1) for a three-game series.
Radford is coming off a 5-6 loss to Davidson after sweeping Army on its opening weekend.
The Highlanders are hitting .667 percent and continue their 12-game road trip due to an expansion project at the Radford baseball field.
The Highlanders are led by junior designated hitter Matt Hillsinger who is hitting .615 and is followed by sophomore first baseman Cory Turner, hitting .556.
The Tigers opened their season last Friday with a 12-5 win over Arkansas State in front of the largest Opening Day crowd in Plainsman Park history.
The opening day sellout crowd of 4,096 was the largest, beating the 3,317 mark set in 2003 against Western Carolina.
The weekend crowd of 11,514 was also the third-largest crowd to watch a three-game series in Plainsman Park.
"The crowd tonight was unreal," said junior outfielder Creede Simpson following Friday's game. "I want to thank every fan that came out. We love playing for them."
Simpson finished 3-for-3 with a pair of walks and tied his career-high with four runs scored.
"I was seeing the ball well and so were a lot of other guys, and we were able to put some good swings on the ball and get some runs," Simpson said. "Our pitching did a great job for us. They kept us in the game."
Sophomore pitcher Slade Smith got the start and pitched into the sixth, surrendering four runs.
Freshman Ethan Wallen threw the final three and a half innings to earn the save, allowing a run on three hits and a walk, striking out two.
Following the Tigers' Opening Day win, Auburn suffered its first loss at the hands of the No. 13 Virginia Cavaliers.
Virginia starting pitcher senior Tyler Wilson held Auburn to just three hits during six full innings and never allowed a runner to reach second, only facing four hitters in an inning twice.
"We didn't do too many things right in the second half of the game," said Auburn head coach John Pawlowski following the loss. "Cory Luckie gave us a chance. He threw the ball well. It was a close ball game, and then a couple of things didn't go our way. Virginia was outstanding today. We couldn't get anything going, and this is a disappointing and frustrating loss."
The Tigers closed the weekend with strong defense and a win.
Junior pitcher Derek Varnadore did not allow a hit until there with two outs in the fifth inning.
"I thought Derek did a great job," Pawlowski said. "UAB can really run, and it was important that we kept their lead-off guy off base. Derek pitched seven strong innings and in six of those innings, he got the lead-off guy out."
After leading the country with a school record 131 home runs in 2010, Auburn went without a homer until senior outfielder Tony Caldwell broke the slum after hitting a first-inning grand-slam in Auburn's 9-4 win against Jacksonville State.
Tuesday's game between Auburn and Jacksonville State was a rematch of the two team's first game in the 2010 NCAA Auburn regional, which Auburn won 9-7.
Creede Simpson went 3-for-5 at the plate with a double, a RBI and a two runs scored while junior infielder Dan Gamache was 1-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
Junior pitcher Jon Luke Jacobs earned his first win since March 28, 2009 at Vanderbilt after Will Irvin left in the fifth inning and finished the game by allowing just two hits and zero walks.
"It felt good just to get back out there coming off of last season which was a little tough for me," Jacobs said.
"I was feeding off the guys in the dugout and I was feeling good."
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