FARMVILLE, Va. – A day after Longwood rode an outstanding pitching performance to victory, it was Charleston Southern's turn to reap the benefits of a dominant outing from Evan Raynor who went the distance Saturday to lead the Buccaneers to a 5-2 win, evening the series at one game apiece.

Raynor (2-1) used stellar fastball command and a wicked slider to keep the Lancers off balance all afternoon. The 6-5 right hander punched out nine while scattering just seven hits to limit Longwood to two runs in his first complete game as a Buccaneer.

"Raynor really had us baffled with that slider," said Longwood head coach Ryan Mau. "He had it going and was able to keep us extremely off-balanced."

For his part, Longwood's Brandon Vick (0-3) kept the Lancers toe-to-toe with Charleston Southern despite taking the tough loss. The senior southpaw went 6.1 innings for his longest start of the season, spreading seven hits across his outing while allowing just a single earned run. The retooled 6-5, 205-pound Vick struck out four Buccaneers and walked just a pair in the loss.

Unfortunately for Vick and the Lancers, Longwood (9-12, 1-4) committed a pair of costly errors with the left hander on the mound, leading to three unearned runs, the eventual difference in the game.

"You have to play defense," said Mau. "You can't give away extra outs, especially when you got a guy on the other side of the things in Raynor who was really on. He had his great stuff today and you can't give him any extra run support or it's going to be tough to come back on a guy like that."

Raynor was phenomenal from the get-go, sitting Longwood down in order in the bottom of the first with a pair of punchouts. The Buc hurler would later go on a string of five straight outs recorded via the strike out, including fanning the side in the fourth despite allowing a run in the frame.

Charleston Southern (11-10, 3-2) jumped out to an early lead in the second on a trio of weakly hit balls and an error from the Lancers. The Buccaneers opened the frame with a perfectly placed bunt single from Nate Blanchard. With a 1-1 count on Robbie Streett, Charleston Southern put on a hit-and-run, forcing Longwood second baseman C.J. Roth to break towards second and allowing Streett to bloop a humpback liner to the hole Roth vacated.

With runners on the corners, CSU dropped down a perfect safety-squeeze and Blanchard slid in safely just underneath the tag as Vick raced off the mound and flipped the ball to the plate directly from his glove. Even then, the Lancers had an opportunity to get out of the inning with only one run across, but an error scored two more Buccaneers and stake Raynor to a comfortable lead.

After the rocky second, Vick settled into a groove, allowing just a pair of hits in the next four innings to keep Longwood in striking distance. The left hander, who worked on a few mechanical changes in the offseason, looked as comfortable as he has at any point this season, showcasing good command and dropping in a solid breaking ball to keep the Buccaneer hitters honest.

Vick appeared to grow stronger and stronger throughout the game, silencing a Charleston Southern threat in the sixth with back-to-back strikeouts. The Bucs moved a runner into scoring with just one out before Vick caught Brandon Burris looking at a fastball before ending the frame by freezing Andrew Widell with a nasty curve.

"I thought Brandon did a really, really good job," said Mau. "In the second inning, they got things going with a little small-ball and then we kicked a ball there that didn't help at all. He did show me a lot in the later innings, recording back-to-back punchouts to get out of a jam. I'm really proud of the way he's throwing the ball his last couple outings and he's starting to look like the Brandon Vick we've all come to expect at this point."

With Vick having settled in, Longwood pulled a run back in the fourth off of a walk of Brandon Delk and an RBI-single from Brandon Harvell. Delk picked up his fourth and fifth stolen bases of the season in swiping second and third during the inning. Then, with two outs, Harvell, who finished 2-for-4 and was the only Lancer with multiple hits, roped a shot through the left side, putting Longwood on the board.

Charleston Southern would get the run back in the seventh, scoring a third unearned run after the Lancers tried to make an incredible play and came up short. Murphy singled to second base and advance to second after the throw skipped away at first. That allowed him to score from third on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Chris Singleton. An inning later, the Buccaneers extended the lead to 5-1 on a walk and bloop single down the right field line.

The Lancers attempted to rally in the bottom of the eighth, getting back-to-back two-out doubles from Kyri Washington and Delk, cutting the deficit to three, but it was not enough as Raynor would shut the Lancers down in the ninth to finish off his stellar day.

With the Charleston Southern victory, the series comes down to a decisive rubber match on Sunday at 1 p.m., 

"We have to get after it and move on," said Mau. "We've got a big game tomorrow, still a chance for us to win the series and more importantly, protect this house, protect our home field."