March 24, 2007

BOX SCORE

FARMVILLE, Va. -- Longwood University dropped a 4-2 baseball decision to visiting Princeton University Saturday night at Lancer Stadium in Farmville. The Lancers (19-8) led 2-0 into the eighth inning before allowing two runs in the eighth, and two more runs in the ninth inning against the Tigers (4-9). Longwood and Princeton will play again on Sunday afternoon, March 25, in the three-game series finale scheduled to begin at 1 p.m..

Longwood took a 2-0 lead with two runs in the fourth inning as freshman Casey Havers/Thorofare, N.J. (West Deptford) (1-3) singled to lead-off the inning, moved to second on a walk to senior Tyler Childress/Montclair (Forest Park) (0-2), before both runners advanced a base on wild pitch. Following a walk to sophomore Paul Heidler II/Warrenton (Notre Dame Academy) (0-2) to load the bases with no outs, freshman Frank Berry II/Virginia Beach (First Colonial) (0-2, RBI) plated Havers with a sacrifice fly. The Lancers only managed one more run, though, coming with two outs as Childress scored on a wild pitch.

Longwood had just three hits on the night, including senior captain Tyler Ames/Exmore (Northampton) (1-3) and sophomore Robbie Bailey/Mechanicsville (Hanover) (1-4), each with singles as well.

Princeton scored two runs in the eighth inning on just one hit, aided by two errors, both on the same play. With one out, Derek Beckman (0-2) was hit-by-a-pitch and Aaron Prince (0-4) drew a walk off Longwood sophomore left-handed starter Kevin Light/Mechanicsville (Hanover) who had been cruising to that point with a career-high 11 strikeouts and only three hits allowed through 7.1 innings. Classmate John Walker II/Alexandria (West Potomac) replaced Light and yielded a single to Dan DeGeorge (2-5) to load the bases. Sal Iacono (1-2, RBI) appeared to hit a sacrifice fly to left field, but the ball was dropped and Beckman scored ahead of Prince who came across the plate on a subsequent throwing error and the contest was tied 2-2.

In the ninth, the Tigers scored the game-winning runs after a pair of one-out singles were followed by a wild pitch to plate David Hale (1-4) before an RBI single from pinch-hitter Jack Murphy (1-1, RBI) scored pinch-runner Greg Van Horn. Langford Stuber (1-0) earned the pitching win for the Tigers in relief, allowing no hits with six strikeouts and three walks over the final 4.0 shutout innings on the mound.

Walker (3-1) took the loss for Longwood with 1.0 inning of late relief, yielding three hits and two runs, both earned. As mentioned, Light had went the first 7.1 innings while allowing just three hits and two runs, one earned, with the 11 strikeouts and one walk.