FARMVILLE, Va. – With two men on and the go-ahead run at the plate in the top of the ninth, Longwood reliever Luke Simpson retired the final two batters he faced to preserve the Lancers' 10-9 win over James Madison Tuesday night at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
 
In a game that featured 16 runs over the final four innings, Simpson (1-1) fired two innings of two-run baseball to lock up a win full of momentum swings and a combined 16 runs over the final four innings. Simpson took over just a half inning after Longwood staked a 10-7 lead and slowed a James Madison offense that had strung together a five-run seventh just before his entry. He immediately cut down the Dukes' momentum with a 1-2-3 eighth and then worked around three singles in the ninth to close out Longwood's fifth home win in eight tries.
 
The climax of Simpson's outing came with one out in the ninth, two men in scoring position and cleanup hitter Brett Johnson in the box just two innings after the 6-5, 225-pound slugger mashed a home run over the left field wall. Simpson had allowed two hits prior to Johnson stepped to the plate, but first-year head coach Ryan Mau opted to keep the ball in the right hand of his 6-3 sophomore.
 
"Luke said he felt good about his fastball," Mau said. "He felt good about busting some people in, so we did that."
 
Simpson rewarded Mau's faith by doing just that, ultimately winning an eight-pitch battle against Johnson by inducing a high popup to second baseman Brandon Harvell for the second out of the ninth inning. It was the biggest of all six outs Simpson recorded and the defining at bat of a final pitching line that included 2.0 innings, three hits, two runs allowed and three strikeouts out of the bullpen.
 
"I fell behind 2-0 in the count at first and then made some good pitches to get back in it," said Simpson, who earned his first win of the year. "It eventually went to 3-2, and I felt like I was commanding my fastball pretty well all night so I tried to go in on him. I didn't want to let him get his hands extended."
 
Simpson's duel with Johnson was a test in resilience, as the James Madison slugger fouled off three straight 3-2 offerings before Simpson finally got him to sky one to Harvell and keep the tying run on second base. That run, in the form of James Madison three-hitter Kevin Husum, never crossed the plate as Simpson recovered from an ensuing run-scoring wild pitch to retire Kyle Mcpherson for the game's final out.
 
"It was good for us to be back in that very tight situation," said Mau, whose Lancers improved to 3-6 in one-run games this season. "To have the tying run, again, right there and being able to work our way out of it shows that we can win tight ballgames. Luke Simpson did a phenomenal job in the back two innings locking that down for us."
 
Simpson's handling of Johnson cut down what could have been yet another momentum swing in a game that featured five lead changes. Longwood reclaimed the lead twice in the sixth and seventh innings, scoring a combined nine runs during those two frames to eventually stake a 10-7 lead that stood until the final out.
 
"We kept fighting," Mau said. "It wasn't pretty, but we'll definitely take it. I thought we did an outstanding job offensively putting up some run support. Even though we tried to give it away a little bit at the end, we did an outstanding job answering the call and firing back to put up a 5-spot in the bottom of the seventh to take back the lead."
 
Longwood's offense was sporadic early, getting a quick boost from junior outfielder Kyri Washington who launched his team-leading seventh home run of the season in the top of the first. James Madison's pitcher-by-committee approach responded by holding the Lancers in check until the bottom of the sixth when leadoff man Colton Konvicka, who went 3-for-5 with two steals and a pair of runs, sparked a four-run rally by launching his second homer of the year to left field.
 
Longwood's four-run sixth erased James Madison's 2-1 lead, but the Lancers' three-run advantage was short-lived. After being no-hit by Devin Gould and Ryan Jones for the first six innings, James Madison finally got to the Longwood bullpen and scored five runs in the top of the seventh to take a 7-5 lead. Johnson capped that rally with a three-run bomb over the left field wall, erasing the Lancer lead and swinging the momentum back into James Madison's dugout.
 
James Madison's hold on the game was equally short-lived, however, as Konvicka ignited another rally in Longwood's next turn at the plate, this time a five-run outburst that put Longwood back on top for good. Konvicka reached on a leadoff single up the middle, advanced to second on a failed pickoff attempt and then stole third after two-hitter Connar Bastaich was hit by a pitch to give Longwood runners at the corners with no outs. He scored two batters later on a push bunt single from senior Travis Biddix to spark a rally that ended on a two-out, two-run single by freshman shortstop Michael Osinski, his third hit of the day.
 
The five-run seventh capped a two-inning surge in which the Lancers turned six hits into nine runs to twice overcome deficits.
 
"You just can't look at it as having to come back and score a lot more," said sophomore third baseman Alex Lewis, who went 1-for-3, scored twice and laced a two-out, two-run single in the fourth. "You just have to do one thing at a time. Get on base, move 'em over, drive 'em in. Just keep it simple."
 
The win precedes Longwood's looming conference showdown at Big South powerhouse Coastal Carolina this Thursday through Saturday, April 2-4. The Lancers will roll out the weekend rotation of Aaron Myers, Brandon Vick and Travis Burnette in hopes of stealing at least one conference victory for the third straight weekend. Friday's game will air on ESPN3.com, and Thursday and Sunday's games will broadcast on the Big South Network.
 

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