Games 31-33: Longwood at Liberty
March 31-April 1, 2015
Lynchburg, Va. • Liberty Softball Stadium (1, 000)
Game 1 - 92.9 WVHL • Game 3 - ESPN3

Full Game Notes

Game Times
3/31 – Longwood at Liberty (DH) – 3 p.m.
4/1 – Longwood at Liberty – 4 p.m.

Leading Off
• Longwood travels to Liberty for its second straight pivotal Big South series against the sec­ond-place Flames. It will mark Longwood's first trip to Lynchburg since the Flames opened its new Liberty Softball Stadium earlier this season.
• Megan Baltzell became the first player in Long­wood history to hit 60 career home runs over the weekend against Presbyterian. Baltzell went deep four times throughout the weekend and finished 4-of-5 with four blasts. For her performance, Balt­zell was named the Big South Player of the Week on Monday.
• Longwood will look to win its fourth straight Big South series to open the 2015 conference sea­son.
• Longwood -- who leads the Big South with an RPI of 103 -- has played a number of squads inside the top 100 of the RPI this season. The Lancers have played four games among teams listed in the top-25 of the RPI rankings, while playing nine games against teams in the top-50 of the rank­ings. Finally, 14 of Longwood's 25 games this sea­son have come against opposing teams inside the top-100 of the rankings.

Last Time Out
• 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.
• 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.
• Baltzell 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.
• Kelsey Sweeney and Taylor Hedrick also went deep for the Lancers in the sixth in­ning to cap a two-run comeback and take the series.
• 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.

By The Numbers
• Longwood returns its full complement of starters from a season ago, including its top eight position players and the top eight bats in the lineup. In addition, the Lancers return their top three pitchers from last season
• Longwood has played four games among teams listed in the top-25 of the RPI rankings, while playing 11 games against teams in the top-50 of the rankings. Fi­nally, 14 of Longwood's 25 games this season have come against opposing teams inside the top-100 of the rankings.
• Longwood opened the 2015 season with 19 consecutive games on the road. The Lancers played 10 of the 19 games in Ha­wai'i. Longwood will open play at Lancer Field in Farmville March 17 against con­ference rival Coastal Carolina.
• In its opening day lineup, the Lancers had more than 900 starts by eight players. Megan Baltzell leads the group with 172 career starts.
• Longwood was picked second in the Big South by the head coaches in the pre­season. The Lancers picked up two first-place votes from the nine head coaches in the league.
• Megan Baltzell passed Brooke Short on the program's charts in career home runs, logging her 56th career round-trip­per Sunday to lead Longwood to a 10-7 victory over Fordham on the final day of the NC State Hyatt Place Invitational.
• Baltzell became the first player in Long­wood history to hit 60 career home runs. The senior hit No. 60 in the seventh inning of Longwood's comeback bid against Presbyterian and that was part of a 4-for- 5 weekend with four home runs.
• Libby Morris looks to establish her name further into Longwood's all-time record books, as she is fifth all-time in career wins with 55 and fourth in career strike­outs with 298.
• In the fall, Longwood softball head coach Kathy Riley announced the signing of a strong recruiting class of six standout student-athletes to begin competing for the Lancers during the 2016 season. The class is comprised of four athletes from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and in­cludes one signee from Southern Califor­nia and North Carolina.
• Longwood enters its 36th season of soft­ball in 2015, as well as the 18th season under the guidance of head coach Kathy Riley. The Lancers own an all-time mark of 762-512-3, while posting a 239-145 ledger in the Division I era.

Scouting the Flames
• Longwood travels to Liberty for a second straight key Big South showdown. The Flames are 6-4 in their last 10 games and won two-of-three over the weekend against Campbell.
• Liberty is currently in second place in the Big South standings with a 4-2 mark in conference action. The Flames have earned a pair of series victories against Gardner-Webb and Campbell.
• Meg Robinson leads Liberty at the plate with a .344 batting average. Tori Zavodny has displayed the most power in the line­up with four home runs to go along with three triples and 10 doubles.
• In the circle, Chandler Ball leads the pitching staff with a 10-6 overall record and a 3.12 ERA.

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