FARMVILLE, Va. – A day after becoming the first player in Longwood history to hit 60 career home runs, Megan Baltzell hit the first of three home runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to cap a 4-2 come-from-behind victory in Sunday's rubber match against Presbyterian at Lancer Field.

"I'm excited to come out on top today," said Longwood head coach Kathy Riley. "Presbyterian took a 2-0 lead and our girls just kept battling. We just had to stay patient and let our game come to us a little more."

Baltzell stepped up to the plate to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning with the Blue Hose holding a slim 2-1 advantage. She took the second pitch she saw from Presbyterian starter Sydney Seigler deep to right field to tie the score, 2-2.

The home run was Baltzell's fourth of the series, as the senior finished the weekend 4-of-5 with four home runs. After coming into the weekend with eight homers on the season, Baltzell concludes the weekend with 12 round-trippers which is currently third in the Big South.

Two batters after Baltzell's blast, freshman Kelsey Sweeney stepped into the box and blasted an 0-2 pitch out of the park in straight away center to give Longwood its first lead of the day, 3-2. Sweeney couldn't pick a better time to hit her first career home run.

"It was very exciting," Sweeney said of her first blast in a Lancer uniform. "It felt good to step up for my team after I struggled at the plate a little bit yesterday. I tried to stay aggressive and it was a really cool feeling to give us the go-ahead run."

One batter later, Taylor Hedrick stepped up to the plate as a pinch hitter for Haleigh Kilby and blasted her first round-tripper of the season to extend the Longwood lead to 4-2.  
The sixth inning has been Longwood's best inning of the season, as evidenced by a 34-10 scoring margin in the sixth frame throughout the campaign.

After the dynamic sixth on Sunday, Elizabeth McCarthy came on to complete her third complete game of the weekend with a three-up, three-down top of the seventh to clinch the series victory. The Blue Hose scattered five hits and three walks against McCarthy, as the sophomore was able to fan eight Presbyterian batters with 105 pitches thrown in seven complete innings.

"I think taking two of three from Presbyterian was pretty big for us, because they were in first-place coming into the weekend," McCarthy said. "We came back after a tough loss in the first game with a couple of good team efforts and got our bats going, so it was a pretty big weekend for us to take two-of-three."

With senior Libby Morris out for the weekend due to injury, McCarthy was called upon by Riley to pitch every inning of the weekend. For the series, McCarthy struck out 23 batters in 22 innings pitched and allowed just four runs after giving up a career-high 10 runs on 171 pitches in the first game.

"I thought Biz and Megan both were lights out for us all weekend," Riley said. "Biz had one bad inning in the first game and really came back from that. I thought her and Megan both were outstanding defensively today and kept us in the game."  

The blue and white has made a habit of taking a rubber match after dropping the first game of their three Big South series. Longwood remains undefeated in Big South series this season, despite dropping the first contest of each series against Coastal Carolina, Winthrop and Presbyterian.

"We just battled really well and I'm proud of them for taking two of three," Riley said. "We've won each of our conference series so far and I think that's something to feel good about."

Sweeney's go-ahead homer in the bottom of the sixth wasn't the only contribution from a Longwood freshman, as Glenn Walters enjoyed a 2-for-2 day with a triple and a run scored. A leadoff triple off the top of the wall in right field from Walters in the top of the fifth inning gave the Lancers a runner at third for the first time in the game and marked just the second hit of the day for the squad.

Walters was brought home after a sacrifice fly from Casey Lifsey, who lifted a 1-2 pitch to the warning track in center field.

Presbyterian scored the game's first two runs with a two-run top of the fourth, highlighted by a two-RBI double from Hope Rogers. Erin Ruff recorded a one-out single to left field and advanced to second base off a bunt single from Kersten Legacki. That brought Rogers to the plate and she lined a 0-1 pitch to right center field to score Ruff and Legacki.

The Blue Hose had an opportunity to add to its lead in the top of the fifth, after Presbyterian loaded the bases with two-out in the top of the fifth. However, McCarthy was able to induce a key ground ball off the bat of Erin Ruff to short and Emily Murphy threw out Ruff to end the inning and keep the deficit to two runs.

"That was a big turning point in the game for us to be able to get out of that inning with no runs being scored," Riley said. "One of the things we're really focusing on in order to get better is withstanding those types of things when the pressure is on us like in that inning. I think that's a big deal for us to get out of a situation like that in order for us to grow as a team."

Longwood will look to keep its momentum from the weekend, as it travels to Lynchburg, Va., for a mid-week conference series against Liberty. The two teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader Tuesday beginning at 3 p.m., before concluding the series Wednesday at 4 p.m.

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