May 12, 2009

BOX SCORE

FARMVILLE, Va. -- Longwood University rallied with five runs in the eighth inning for a 9-6 come-from-behind baseball victory past visiting James Madison University of the Colonial Athletic Association Tuesday night at Lancer Stadium in Farmville.  The Lancers won their final home game of the season on Senior Night while improving to 26-20; the Dukes dropped to 29-22 overall.  Longwood will go back on the road to complete its 2009 campaign this Thursday and Friday, May 14-15, with a three-game series at Southern Conference member Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.  The Lancers and Mountaineers will play a single game on Thursday at 6 p.m., followed by a season-ending doubleheader on Friday beginning at 2 p.m..
   
Against JMU, Longwood fell behind 1-0 in the first inning as Alex Foltz (0-4) walked, advanced two bases on a pair of wild pitches, and scored on an RBI single by Matt Townsend (2-4, RBI).  The Lancers responded with three runs in the opening inning as sophomore Brant Jones/Richmond (Monacan) (1-4, RBI) tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly from junior Phil Cerreto/Midlothian (Midlothian) (1-3, RBI).  Senior Jonathan Quigley/Annandale (W.T. Woodson) (4-4, 2 RBI) later hit a two-out, two-run home run to left center field, his team-leading ninth of the year, that also scored junior David Smiy Jr./Chesterfield (Matoaca) (1-4, 2 RBI) who had drawn a walk.  The Dukes added a run in the second on an RBI single from Jake Lowery (2-3, RBI), and another run in the third on an RBI single by Matt Browning (3-5, RBI) to tie it at 3-3.  JMU scored two runs in the fifth to lead 5-3 after a sacrifice fly from David Herbek (1-4, RBI) and a successful bunt single RBI by Mike Fabiaschi (3-5, 2 RBI).
   
Longwood scored a run in the fifth as well to close to within 5-4 as freshman Dustin Sollars/Midlothian (Cosby) (2-3) doubled to lead-off and later crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly from Jones.  James Madison moved the margin to 6-4 with another run in the seventh on another RBI single from Fabiaschi.  The Lancers, however, won it in the eighth inning behind the five-run rally.  Quigley, who had four hits in his last appearance at Lancer Stadium, led-off with a single before freshman Robby Newman/Virginia Beach (Salem) (1-4, RBI) promptly followed with an RBI double.  Sophomore Chris Briere/Midlothian (James River) pinch-hit and was hit-by-a-pitch before freshman Ian Harvey/Midlothian (James River) pinch-ran for Newman ahead of the game-winning hit, a two-run double to right center field by freshman Mike Stancik/Ashburn (Stone Bridge) (1-4, 2 RBI).  Smiy added some insurance runs with his two-out, two-run home run just inside the left field foul pole to provide for the final margin.  It was Smiy's second homer of the season.
   
Senior Paul Heidler II/Warrenton (Notre Dame Academy) (4-1) earned the pitching win for Longwood with the final 2.0 scoreless innings, yielding just one hit with one walk and three strikeouts (in the ninth inning).  Also pitching for the Lancers were senior starter John Walker II/Alexandria (West Potomac) [4.2-ip, 12-h, 4-er, 1-bb, 2-k], along with freshman Mark Montgomery/Williamsburg (Bruton) [2.1-ip, 2-h, 1-er, 0-bb, 3-k].
   
Alex Valadja (4-4) took the mound loss for James Madison with 1.1 innings of late relief, allowing three hits and three earned runs with one walk and one strikeout.  Starter Justin Wood went the first 4.0 innings for the Dukes, yielding just three hits and two earned runs with one walk and two strikeouts.