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FARMVILLE, Va. – All-Big South first-teamer Elizabeth McCarthy opened the final postseason of her storied career with a complete game two-hitter, shutting down No. 6 seed Radford in No. 3 seed Longwood's 6-1 opening-round win as host of the 2017 Big South Championship at Lancer Field.

Beginning its quest for a third straight Big South Championship and fourth in a span of five years in front of a large Longwood contingent, the Lancers (25-26) turned to their ace in four-time All-Big South first team selection and two-time Big South Pitcher of the Year McCarthy.

"Today was the best atmosphere we played in front of all season," said Longwood head coach Kathy Riley. "I'm proud of our team and the way we played today. We did a nice job in a lot of phases. We hit when we had people on base, Biz [McCarthy] pitched a real nice game and we played some solid defense behind her."

McCarthy turned in a complete-game performance, allowing one run on two hits and striking out four batters. The win was number 73 of McCarthy's career, tying her former assistant coach Jen Steele for second place on Longwood's all-time wins list. In addition, McCarthy passed former Coastal Carolina pitcher Ashley Bagwell for seventh all-time on the Big South strikeout list with 641 throughout her four-year career.

"Biz did a nice job of embracing the situation and for her to be second-place for most victories at Longwood is something she'll look back on 10 years from now and remember," Riley said.

After recording a one-hit shutout in the first game of Longwood's regular season series against the Highlanders 12 days ago, McCarthy retired the first 13 batters she faced before allowing a one out single to Maggie Rowe in the fifth.

For McCarthy, the game is a continuation of her dominant performance down the stretch of the regular season that has seen the senior go 6-0 with a 1.39 in her last 40.1 innings with 37 strikeouts compared to 12 walks. In that span, McCarthy has improved her record to 12-8 in that span.

"We came into this week looking strong, winning eight of our last nine games," McCarthy said. "The support we had today was awesome and it was nice to start off with a win."

Longwood's offense spotted McCarthy an early 3-0 lead after loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the second. Jessica Smith plated the first of her two RBI with a groundout to give the Lancers the lead that inning and then bookended the scoring with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth.

Smith led a surging Longwood offense that saw five different players record a hit in the game. The Chesapeake, Va., product had two RBI to go along with a two-run day for junior Krista Kelly.

For Smith, the game continues a hot stretch for the sophomore recording hits in six of her last seven games. In that stretch, Smith has five of her 12 RBI on the season and is second on the team with a .318 (7-of-22) batting average.

The Lancers added a run in the third and fourth innings. Second-team All-Big South selection Jordan Clark came home to score on a heads up play, scoring from second on a fielder's choice that Kelly grounded into. An inning later, Kaylynn Batten added another run to the Longwood with an RBI double to score Justina Augustine to increase the Lancer lead to 5-0.

Radford was able to claw to within four runs after loading the bases and Sofia Tapia drew a walk to bring home Mallory Marsicek. However, the Lancers proved to be too much, as Smith recorded her second RBI of the day the next half inning to bring home Kelly and re-give Longwood a five-run lead.

The win is Longwood's fifth straight win in the Big South Championship going back to last year's title and advances to Thursday's quarterfinal round against No. 2 seed Campbell at 2:30 p.m. That matchup will pit the Lancers against the team they tied for second place in the final Big South standings.

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