Box Score
FARMVILLE, Va. -- Chase Shelton had three hits and two RBI, and Tory Schroff pitched seven strong innings, to lead Charleston Southern University to a 2-1 Big South Conference baseball victory at Longwood University on Friday night at Bolding Stadium in Farmville. Senior
Scott Burkett/Williamsburg and freshman
Mac McCafferty/Stevens, Pennsylvania each had two hits for the Lancers (9-10, 0-1 Big South), while junior
Aaron Myers/Newport News took the hard-luck mound loss despite a career-high 10 strikeouts against the visiting South Division Buccaneers (14-5, 1-0 Big South). Longwood and Charleston Southern will play game two of their three-game weekend series on Saturday, March 15 at 4 p.m. at Bolding Stadium in Farmville.
Charleston Southern threatened in the first inning with runners at second and third with one out, but Myers stranded both Bobby Ison (2-3), who had singled, and Shelton (3-4, 2 RBI), who had doubled, with back-to-back strikeouts. The Buccaneers got on the scoreboard with a run in the third inning to lead 1-0 after Alex Tomasovich (2-4) walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Ison and on to third via a wild pitch, before a run-scoring single by Shelton. Longwood got its first hit off of Schroff in the fourth after a single by sophomore
Kyri Washington/Prospect (1-4).
Charleston Southern, however, opened the fifth inning with three-straight singles to score another run for a 2-0 advantage. Tomasovich, Ison (while really trying to bunt for another sacrifice) and Shelton had the consecutive hits for the visitors, the last by Shelton to plate Tomasovich, who scored both runs for the Bucs. Myers was able to limit the damage in the inning with a pop-foul, a strikeout and an infield pop-up.
Longwood put two runners on base in the fifth after a one-out single by Burkett (2-4) and a two-out single by McCafferty (2-3, RBI), but a ground ball ended the inning. The Lancers scored a run in the seventh inning to pull within a run at 2-1, following a one-out single by Burkett, who moved to second on a ground ball, and scored on an RBI single from McCafferty. Longwood, though, went down in order in both the eighth and ninth innings.
Myers (3-1) started for Longwood and pitched 8.0 solid innings, scattering nine hits and two earned runs with the career-high 10 strikeouts and only one walk. Freshman
Mitchell Kuebbing/Burlington, Kentucky tossed a 1-2-3 ninth with one strikeout.
Schroff (2-0) started for Charleston Southern and pitched 7.0 strong innings, yielding just six hits and one earned run with five strikeouts and one walk. Austin Weekley (5) hurled a 1-2-3 ninth with one strikeout for his fifth save.
Longwood and CSU were playing for the first time in the sport, as the two teams did not meet last season, the Lancers first year in the Big South.
NOTE: The Lancers and Bucs will play their series finale on Sunday at 12 p.m., instead of the previously-scheduled 1 p.m.
