FARMVILLE, VA. – Alex Lewis and Connar Bastaich combined to go 5-for-7 at the plate with four RBI as Longwood knocked off Radford, 5-4, and clinched a conference series win Friday evening at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
 
Lewis and Bastaich, the four and five hitters, each finished with a pair of RBI to help Longwood (13-10, 3-2 Big South) knock off Radford (5-18, 0-2 Big South) in game two of a three-game set. The win clinched the series for the Lancers, who won on a walk-off in the 10th inning against Radford Thursday night.
 
"It was a huge win here in game two and obviously being able to take the series is great," Longwood head coach Ryan Mau said after the win. "We're looking forward to trying to finish the job. That's to defend our house and close the series out with a win."
 
Lewis put together his second three-hit game of the season and is tied for the Longwood lead with seven multi-hit games. The junior third baseman and designated hitter finished 3-for-3 with three singles, the first two were RBI hits that brought his team-leading total to 24 RBI on the season. Lewis raised his batting average to a team-best .325 in the hitting assault.
 
"[Lewis] continues to swing the bat extremely well," Mau said. "He's seeing the ball unbelievably well right now and putting some outstanding swings on it for us. He came up with some big hits in the first and third innings to get us on the board a couple times. It's great to see him and [Bastaich] start something with two outs and obviously [Bastaich] getting a hold of one in the two-run inning."
 
Bastaich is tied with Lewis for the team lead in multi-hit games after picking up a pair of hits, including his second home run of the season. The senior first baseman went back-to-back with Lewis in hits twice in the game, the second time blasting a two-run home run to left and driving in Lewis. Bastaich finished the day 2-for-4 with two RBI.
 
"I'm feeling pretty good at the plate," Bastaich said after the win. "I had been on a little bit of a cold streak, but now I'm starting to warm up again and I'm hitting the ball well. I got a good pitch to hit on that home run and I got the ball right where I like it."
 
The offensive support made freshman left-hander Steven Farkas (1-1) a winner for the first time in his collegiate career. Farkas dazzled with his second quality start of the season, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks spread across 6.0 innings of work and tied his career high with five strikeouts.
 
"Farkas was awesome," Mau said. "He filled it up. I thought he did a great job of challenging with his fastball getting some poor contact early in counts."
 
Devin Gould nailed down the save, his second, in just his third appearance of the season. A member of the 2016 Stopper of the Year watch list, Gould struck out two batters in a perfect ninth inning for the save. The appearance for Gould was his first outing since picking up a three-inning save against Wagner February 27.
 
"It's great to have Gould back at the back end of ballgames," Mau said. "He was lights out tonight."
 
In addition to Gould, Michael Catlin put together a strong performance out of the bullpen. The junior southpaw held the Longwood lead after entering the ballgame in the seventh inning. 
 
"Catlin again did a great job," Mau said. "To come in and get us out of that troubled spot in the seventh inning with minimum damage, I thought that was the turning point in the ballgame."

Catlin pitched two innings with no runs allowed, one hit, and one strikeout. Catlin has not been charged with a run in his last 13.0 innings of work across five relief appearances.

For Radford, senior righty Dylan Nelson (0-5) took the loss despite a decent outing. Nelson went 7.0 innings and allowed five runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts to one walk, an intentional free pass to Lewis in the seventh inning.
 
"It's huge for Bastaich to step up hitting behind Lewis," Mau said. "You saw them intentionally walk Lewis, who's obviously starting to get some serious respect in the league, and you have to have guys around him to protect him and they did that tonight."
 
Bastaich provided plenty of support behind Lewis, who leads Longwood in batting average, home runs, and RBI. Bastaich provided Longwood another dangerous hitter in the win.
 
"It's a big role for me to step up when teams pitch around [Lewis]," Bastaich said. "If he's not getting much to hit I have to come through."
 
Bastaich sits second on the team behind Lewis in each category with a .286 average, two home runs, and 12 RBI.
 
The home run for Bastaich almost didn't happen. With two outs in the fifth inning, Lewis beat out an infield single to keep the inning alive. Bastaich then stepped to the plate and sent a middle-in fastball into the grass behind the left field wall and gave Longwood a 5-2 lead.

"It was a tight game throughout the day and putting two runs up on that home run was huge," Bastaich said. "Lewis did a great job to get on base and luckily I put a good swing on it."
 
Bastaich and Lewis carried the bulk of the load offensively, but freshman catcher Carlos Garrido had the go-ahead RBI for Longwood. Garrido hit an RBI double to plate Drew Kitson in the fourth inning and gave Longwood a 3-2 lead. The young backstop finished 1-for-4 and is hitting .346 (9-for-26) his last 10 games with two doubles and five RBI in that stretch.
 
Kitson made as strong a contribution in the field as anyone Friday. The junior outfielder tied his career high with five putouts, two of which were diving inning-ending grabs.
 
In Radford's half of the second inning with a man in scoring position and already two runs across, Kitson took away a hit from shortstop Colby Higgerson with a diving stab in the right-center field gap, ending the threat and keeping the score a 2-1 Radford lead.
 
Kitson again made a run-saving grab to end the top of the third inning. With runners on first and second base Kitson made a sliding grab on the line in right field to take away a potential hit and RBI from Radford designated hitter Jonathan Gonzalez. In the bottom half of the frame Lewis hit his second RBI single of the day to tie the game at two.
 
With the win the Lancers improved to 6-1 in one-run games, 7-1 when receiving a quality start, and 4-2 against teams from Virginia.
 
Longwood looks for its third sweep of the season with a win Saturday afternoon at Buddy Bolding Stadium. Longwood has not swept a conference series since taking all three games against Gardner-Webb in April of 2013, Longwood's first season in the Big South.
 
Luke Simpson (0-1) is expected to get the start for Longwood opposite of Radford's senior lefty Mitchell MacKeith (2-1). First pitch Saturday is set for 2 p.m.
 
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