RADFORD, Va. – Longwood may already have the Big South regular season championship in hand, but the Lancers aren't coasting to the finish line.
 
In their final series before the start of the Big South Softball Championship, first-place Longwood (28-23, 19-4 Big South) hit nine home runs and put up a combined 26 runs to sweep Radford, 15-4 and 11-5, in a Saturday double header at RU Softball Stadium. The sweep gives the Lancers a program-record 19 Big South wins, one shy of tying Coastal Carolina's conference-record 20 wins in 2014.
 
Junior shortstop and reigning Big South Player of the Week Emily Murphy continued her onslaught at the plate by launching a pair of home runs and driving in six RBI in the two-game set. Hitting cleanup behind Big South RBI, runs, walks, on base percentage and slugging leader Megan Baltzell, Murphy homered in both games to extend her home run streak to six consecutive games, a span in which she has now delivered 22 RBI.          
 
Radford (12-35, 7-4 Big South) also had no solution for Baltzell, who homered, drove in four runs, scored twice and reached base safely in seven of her nine plate appearances. The All-America candidate maintained her hold on the Big South's all-time home run record with a solo shot in game two and tied Charleston Southern's Marci Christian for the league lead with 23 long balls this season. The home run was the 72nd of Baltzell's career, putting the Big South Preseason Player of the Year within one home run of cracking the NCAA's top 10 all-time in the category.
 
The three-through-six hitter combination of Baltzell, Murphy, Chelsea Sciacca and Glenn Walters provided a dominant effort from the heart of the batting order, belting eight home runs and driving in 17 of the Lancers' 26 runs on the day. All four hit home runs, including three from Walters and two each from Murphy and Sciacca.
 
"We played some good softball considering final exams were last week," Longwood head coach Kathy Riley said. "We discussed resetting ourselves so we could regain some of the momentum we built over the last three weeks, and I believe we did that today. We're excited about getting back on the field tomorrow and making the last game of the series the best of the three."
 
The offensive explosion and an error-free day in the field gave the Lancers their ninth consecutive win overall and ninth straight win in Big South play. Sunday's series finale against the Highlanders precedes the start of the Big South Tournament on May 7 in Buies Creek, N.C., where the Lancers will open the postseason as the No. 1 seed for the first time. The top seed earns Longwood a first-game matchup against the winner of the No. 8 and No. 9 seed game at 2:30 p.m., which will serve as the start of Longwood's quest for a second Big South Championship.
 
Game One: Longwood 15, Radford 4
Freshman outfielder Glenn Walters homered twice, cleanup hitter Emily Murphy hit a three-run bomb and Big South Player of the Year candidate Megan Baltzell drove in three runs to engineer a 15-4 rout over the Highlanders in game one.
 
Those three combined for nine RBI from the three through six spots in Longwood's order as the Lancers raked 17 hits and played error-free softball through a run-rule-shortened five-inning game. Seven of those knocks went for extra bases, including a pinch hit homer from Taylor Hedrick and a double from Baltzell that was her Big South-leading 35th extra-base hit of the year.
 
The Lancers blew the game open with a seven-run third inning in which they sent 12 batters to the plate and got home runs from Walters and Murphy. The inning began with three straight hits, including Walters' second home run of the game, that prompted an early exit for Radford right-hander Kelsey Weddle. The pitching change did little to quiet Longwood's bats, however, as the Lancers took advantage of a pair of two-out errors later in the inning to score five more runs against reliever Taylor Asimakopoulo on the way to a 12-2 lead.
 
The Highlanders nickel and dimed their way to a run in the bottom of the third, but Hedrick kept the momentum going for Longwood with a pinch-hit, two-run homer to straightaway center in the top of the fourth. Baltzell added an RBI single three batters later to push the Lancers' lead to 15-3, and starting pitcher Biz McCarthy (20-12) worked around a leadoff home run from Summer Robinson in the fourth to lock up her 20th win of the day.
 
Game Two: Longwood 11, Radford 5
Chelsea Sciacca hit two of Longwood's five home runs, drove in three runs and scored three times to spearhead another double-digit scoring explosion in an 11-5 victory over Radford in game two.
 
Sciacca went deep in the second and fifth innings as part of a home run derby from the Lancers who also got a three-run homer from Emily Murphy in the first inning, and solo shots from Glenn Walters and Megan Baltzell. Sciacca and Walters went back-to-back in the second inning as the Lancers built an 8-0 lead before Radford got on the board.
 
With that eight-run cushion, senior Libby Morris (7-7) blanked Radford over three innings of two-hit ball to earn her 58th career victory. Since returning from an injury that sidelined her for nearly a month, Morris has gone 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA through four appearances. Her return to the field comes just in time for the Big South Tournament where she was named to the 2012 all-tournament team during Longwood's first run to the championship.
 
After Morris' exit, Radford touched up sophomore Jenna Carnes for five runs over the next four innings, but Baltzell's and Sciacca responded with fifth-inning solo homers to keep Longwood on top. Carnes would settle in to throw a scoreless sixth and a one-run seventh en route to locking up the double header sweep.

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