FARMVILLE, Va. – Megan Baltzell matched Coastal Carolina's Kory Hayden for atop the Big South charts in home runs with her second blast of the weekend to propel Longwood to a 9-2 win over Gardner-Webb Sunday afternoon at Lancer Field to complete the series sweep.

Batzell, a product of Stafford, Va., launched her 68th career home run, as she recorded a two-RBI double in the first inning and added the two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning. Baltzell concludes the weekend tied with Coastal Carolina third baseman Kory Hayden atop the Big South's all-time home runs list with 59. Baltzell is tied with Hayden, despite not counting the nine home runs from her freshman season are not counted towards the Big South record books as Longwood did not become a member institution until the 2013 campaign

"I'm just happy to get the series win – that's our main goal," Baltzell said. "It was good to get three wins and we just need to keep progressing, as we head into championship season."

The Lancers picked up their sixth straight Big South series, taking each two-of-three conference series to date. Longwood (20-21, 14-4) has now won nine of its past 10 games in Big South play and concludes the weekend two games behind first-place Coastal Carolina.

"We did what we needed to do to get the job done," said head coach Kathy Riley. "We were looking to do a couple things differently from what we did yesterday. One of the things we wanted to focus on was to string some hits together, which we did a decent job at. I wanted us to be a little bit sharper, but I'm happy to win another conference series."

Baltzell was one of three different Lancers to notch a multi-hit game, as Justina Augustine and Katie Shinrock added two and three hits, respectively. Augustine continued her stellar weekend at the plate, adding three hits to go along with three runs scored and a pair of RBI. Shinrock also concluded the weekend in strong fashion, as she had two base hits for the second straight game and extends her hitting streak to three games.

In the circle, Elizabeth McCarthy (16-10) picked up her third straight win, while Jenna Carnes recorded the save after tossing three innings in relief. For the day, McCarthy allowed a run on seven hits and two walks while striking out four batters in 4.0 scoreless innings. Meanwhile, Carnes allowed one unearned run in 3.0 innings on three hits while notching a pair of strikeouts.

With the four strikeouts, McCarthy is one shy of matching the 145 she finished her rookie campaign with, as the southpaw now has posted 144 strikeouts this season. McCarthy sits fourth and fifth in the Longwood record books in single-season strikeouts in her two seasons.

After McCarthy issued a one-out walk in the top of the first inning to Megan Gibbons, Gardner-Webb strung together a pair of base hits and took an early 1-0 advantage. Amanda Gomes had the big RBI base hit with a single to center field to score Gibbons from second. The Runnin' Bulldogs later loaded the bases, but McCarthy was able to strikeout Savannah Burns to end the inning.

Longwood plated three runs in the bottom of the inning to take the 3-1 advantage. Baltzell had a double to left-center field that bounced to the wall to score Augustine and Emily Murphy. The senior was moved to third base on a groundout from Kelsey Sweeney, before Sciacca flied out to left field to bring home Baltzell on the sacrifice fly.

The bottom of the Lancer order was able to come through in the second inning, as Shinrock and Casey Lifsey opened the frame with a pair of singles. Augustine brought both runners to the plate with a two RBI double down the right field line to give Longwood a 5-1 cushion. Later in the inning, Sciacca reached on a fielder's choice and brought home Augustine.

After a scoreless third inning, the Lancers tacked on another insurance run in the fourth inning, as Baltzell scored on a suicide squeeze play on a bunt from Jaime Barbour.
Baltzell hit her second blast of the weekend in the bottom of the sixth inning off a 1-1 pitch with one out in the inning. Her two-run shot tied Hayden for most all-time in the Big South record books and marked her fifth homer in her past seven games.

"I talked to her about picking up the pace a bit to see if we could square up a couple of balls, since we lost a little bit of that momentum we had earlier in the game," Riley said. "She went up there with the thought process of getting some things going, so it was really nice to see her come through in that situation."

Up next, the Lancers will make the short trip to Charlottesville, Va. for a midweek doubleheader against Virginia. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.

"UVa has been scoring a lot of runs lately, so Wednesday's matchup will be another difficult test for us at their place," Riley said.

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