RADFORD, Va. - Another day, another milestone reached in the illustrious career of
Megan Baltzell.
Baltzell established her name further into the NCAA record books Sunday, moving into a tie for 10th all-time in NCAA history in career home runs along with Washington's Jaimie Clark (2000-03) to lead Longwood to a 10-5 victory at Radford.
With the game tied, 4-4, in the top of the sixth inning, Baltzell came to the plate with two-on and one-out. She lifted the first pitch she saw from Radford's Kelsey Weddle over the wall in right field to give Longwood a 7-4 lead.
A day after breaking the Longwood career hits record, Baltzell homered for the second time in a two-day span to move into a tie for 10th all-time in NCAA history in career home runs with 73. She is third on the active career home run list, trailing just Oklahoma's Lauren Chamberlain and Shelby Pendley.
Going for her second home run title in three seasons, Baltzell concludes the regular season in a three-way tie for second-place in the NCAA Â along with
Oklahoma's Pendley and Cleveland State's Cynthia Woodard with 24 blasts.
In addition, Baltzell takes a commanding five home run lead in her bid to become the Big South's leader in career home runs. Baltzell leads Coastal Carolina's Kory Hayden, 64-59, in the battle to become the conference's top home run hitter.
The win for the Lancers gives them their third consecutive series sweep in the Big South, as the squad concludes the regular season on a 10-game win streak in conference play. Longwood also finished the regular season by winning its final nine games to post its longest overall win streak of the season.
"Today took some patience on our part because Radford competed hard for all seven innings," said Longwood head coach
Kathy Riley. "I am proud of our team for their composure and intestinal fortitude after getting behind early."
The 2015 regular season proved to be a year of firsts for the Lancers in the Big South. The squad defeated Coastal Carolina in a series for the first time since joining the league and won the first Big South regular season title. Finally, the Lancers won each of its eight conference series for the first time since joining the league, while sweeping four different opponents.
Baltzell was one of nine Lancers to record hits on the day, as
Jamie Barbour notched a 3-for-5 performance with a RBI and a run scored.
Emily Murphy and
Chelsea Sciacca also notched a pair of hits, as the Lancers recorded a total of 12 hits on the afternoon.
After matching her win total from her freshman season Saturday with her 20th win,
Elizabeth McCarthy notched the victory in the series finale and improved to 21-12. The sophomore allowed a run on three hits in four innings of work. She added five strikeouts and now owns 187 strikeouts on the season, just 16 shy of tying the school single season record of 203.
Radford opened the scoring in Sunday's finale with two runs in the bottom of the first inning to jump out to its first lead of the series.
However, a three-run third inning gave Longwood its first lead of the day courtesy of a pair of Radford errors and Murphy's seventh home run in her last seven games.
After Radford pushed across a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth, Longwood tied the game, 4-4, in the next half inning after Murphy scored on a fielder's choice off the bat of
Taylor Hedrick.
Baltzell gave the Lancers the lead for good with a three-run bomb, as part of a five-run top of the sixth. Sciacca added an RBI double to score Murphy and was brought home when
Kelsey Sweeney notched an infield single. Â
Longwood, the 2015 Regular Season Big South Champions, will face the winner of Gardner-Webb and Radford in the first round of the Big South Tournament Thursday at 2 p.m. from Amanda Littlejohn Stadium in Buies Creek, N.C.
"We're going to take the next three days and prepare for a tournament run," Riley said. "I expect us to play some great softball come Thursday."
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