Baseball Falls At VMI 9-8; Plays At The Citadel Tuesday

Sophomore Tyler Childress Collects Two Hits, Three RBI Against Keydets

April 10, 2005

LEXINGTON, Va. -- Longwood University dropped a 9-8 baseball decision at VMI Sunday in Lexington. The Lancers dropped to 11-22 this season with the road loss, while the Keydets improved to 17-17 with a sweep of the three-game weekend series. Longwood will play again Tuesday, April 12, in South Carolina at The Citadel beginning at 6 p.m. in the first of a two-game, mid-week series.

At VMI of the Big South Conference, Longwood took the early lead for the third-straight day only to see the Keydets rally for the win again. The Lancers scored six runs in the second inning to lead 6-0 before VMI scored four runs in the fourth inning and one run in the seventh inning to narrow the score to 6-5 through eight innings. LU looked like it would salvage a victory on the weekend when it added two runs in the top of the ninth inning to lead 8-5, but the Keydets answered with four runs in the bottom of the ninth to steal the victory.

Longwood was led by sophomores Tyler Childress/Montclair (Forest Park) (2-4, 3 RBI) and Charlie Yarbrough/Richmond (Mills Godwin) (2-4, RBI) with two hits each, while classmate Matt Duval/Mechanicsburg, Pa. (Trinity) (1-3, 2 RBI) added a pair of RBI. Childress contributed an RBI single in the second, and a two-run single in the ninth. Yarbrough hit his team-leading eighth home run this spring to lead-off the second, while Duval added a two-run double in the second.

Sophomore Brian McCullough/Virginia Beach (Princess Anne) (3-3) took the pitching loss in late relief with the final 2.2 innings, allowing five hits and five earned runs with two strikeouts. Freshman John Farrell/Nantucket, Mass. (Nantucket) pitched the first 5.0 innings, yielding five hits and three earned runs.

VMI was led by Elliott Erbe (3-4, 2 RBI) who had three hits and and two RBI, including a home run and the game-winning hit on an RBI single in the ninth, while Matt Smith (2-5, 2 RBI) added a pair of hits for the Keydets. Jeff DeMara (4-2) earned the mound win in late relief with the final 2.2 innings, scattering one hit and two earned runs with one strikeout.

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