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FARMVILLE, Va. – Backed by a pair of strong pitching performances from freshman Sydney Gay and junior Elizabeth McCarthy, the Longwood softball team picked up a pair of wins over Hartford and Monmouth Sunday afternoon to complete the weekend sweep in the Longwood Spring Fling.

The Lancers earned a 10-0 run rule victory over Hartford in the first game of the day, marking its second run rule victory over the Hawks this weekend. In addition, the Lancers grinded out a 4-3 win over Monmouth in the second contest, clinching a 5-0 record throughout the weekend.

"It feels really good to come away with wins in our five games this weekend," said head coach Kathy Riley. "I felt there were different challenges that we had to face in those five games. A couple of the games went pretty smoothly and three of the games we really had to battle through."

After allowing just one run on five hits in her win Saturday over Monmouth, Gay picked up a two-hit shutout in the game against Hartford. A product of Carrollton, Va., Gay gave up just a pair of singles and walked a couple of batters, as she struck out five in five innings of work.

Meanwhile, McCarthy was just as strong in the circle in game two, giving up three runs, none earned, on three hits and a walk while striking out nine batters. For the weekend, McCarthy added 20 strikeouts to her total, bringing her within 25 punchouts from matching Jen Steele for the second most in program history.

Krista Kelly led the Lancers at the plate for the day, going 4-for-7 with a pair of doubles throughout the day. She also added a pair of runs, as well as a pair of RBI to her totals, giving her a team-high eight RBI this season.

Longwood (7-2) next travels to Starkville, Miss., for the Bulldog Slamboree, where it will face Central Arkansas and Northwestern State during the opening day of the tournament March 4, 2016. That tournament starts a grueling stretch of the schedule where Longwood will play seven NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago in its next nine games.

"The next few games are critical in terms of our growth," Riley said. "We're really happy to have the challenge. In all honesty, we're all looking forward to it and it's an opportunity to play a lot of really good teams."

Longwood 10, Hartford 0 (5)
Gay was stellar in the circle, pitching a two-hit shutout in Longwood's 10-0 victory over Hartford in the first game of the day.

She had a no-hitter through 3.1 innings, before Hartford's Sawyer Fried broke it up with a single through the right side and just out of the reach of Kelly at second base. In addition, outside of back-to-back singles in the fourth inning, Gay did not allow a runner to advance past second in the game.

"I thought Sydney had better stuff today," Riley said. "She had great spin on her rise and curve ball. It was real easy to call pitches for her today. She had great command and I don't know if she could've thrown any better today."

Gay faced just four batters over the minimum throughout the afternoon, while throwing 79 pitches, 57 for strikes.

"It feels good to get the win," Gay said. "I came out more relaxed than I did yesterday. I definitely got more comfortable after we scored and just gained confidence from there."

Making her home debut over the weekend, Gay (3-0) pitched 12.0 innings, allowing one run on seven hits and four walks. In addition, she finished with 12 strikeouts.

Gay was backed by Longwood's season-high 10 runs on seven hits, including an eight-run third inning. Five different Lancers notched hits in the game, as Kelly and Jordan Clark each had a pair. It marked a season-best for Clark, who finished with her first multi-RBI day with two RBI.

Kelsey Bird (0-3) took the loss for Hartford, giving up five runs on five hits and two walks in 2.1 innings. She was relieved by Lexi Wilkerson, who tossed 1.2 innings and gave up five runs, one earned, on two hits and a pair of walks.

Glenn Walters, who recorded three extra base hits Saturday, led off with her second home run of the season in the bottom of the first inning. Clark had her first of two RBI in the game on a double down the left field line one inning later to bring home Justina Augustine.

Longwood took advantage of three Hartford errors and three base hits to send 13 batters to the plate, as the squad plated eight runs in the frame. After Walters walked to start the inning, Kelly drove her in with an RBI double to right center. Taylor Hedrick then recorded a sacrifice fly to right field to plate Kelly, before Clark went the opposite way with a 3-2 pitch and hit it through the right side to bring home Kaylynn Batten.

The Hartford infield became unraveled, being charged with two straight errors to allow Augustine, Clark and Jessica Smith to score. Krista Kelly picked up her second RBI of the inning with her second double, as she hit a ball hard to right center to score Jamie Barbour.

Meanwhile, Gay allowed just one baserunner through the first 3.1 innings, before Fried broke up the no-hit bid and Danielle DeMarco followed with the Hawks' second straight single. Gay got out of the jam with a pop up to Kelly at second and getting Bianca Ross to ground out into a force play to Smith at third.

Longwood 4, Monmouth 3
A two-run rally in the fifth inning, and behind a solid performance from McCarthy in the circle, Longwood picked up a 4-3 victory over Monmouth to capture its fifth straight win and complete the sweep in the Longwood Spring Fling.

"I'm happy we were able to get the sweep this weekend," McCarthy said. "I was struggling hitting the inside pitch for a little while, but Kayla [Miller] told me to just trust it and once I did that it worked."

McCarthy (3-2), who's only yielded five earned runs this season in 32.1 innings pitched, gave up three runs, none earned, on three hits and a walk. In addition, she struck out nine batters in the game, marking a season-high and finishing within one punchout of matching her career-high of 10 K's which she's done on four occasions.

"I think Biz battled real hard today," Riley said. "They gave her some tough at-bats and she was able to work through that.

Offensively, Kelly had a 2-for-4 performance with a run scored, as the Lancers left seven baserunners on base.

Longwood was able to come back on two occasions in the game after Monmouth had taken a lead.

"We were able to rise to the occasion today after we got down, we were able to get back into the game and give ourselves a chance," Riley said.

In the fourth inning, Ashalynn Umiamaka reached on a fielding error at first base which plated Jasmine Higa and Rachel Shotzbarger.

However, after being held hitless in the first three innings, Longwood's bats awoke in the fourth. Augustine came back from an 0-2 hole to work a one out walk, before Kelsey Sweeney doubled to bring her home. The Lancers later tied the game on a fielder's choice from Haleigh Kilby to plate Barbour, who came on to pinch run for Sweeney.

After Monmouth regained the lead in the next half inning with a sacrifice fly, Longwood tallied two runs to take its first lead of the game. Krista Kelly led off with an infield single and stole second, before Emily Murphy came up with an RBI double to right field to plate Kelly. Two batters later, Augustine singled down the left field line to bring home Murphy and give the Lancers their first lead of the day.

McCarthy took over from there, working a pair of clean innings to clinch the win and the weekend sweep.

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