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FARMVILLE, Va. – The underdog Longwood softball team is heading back to the NCAA Regional final for the second straight year.
 
Facing elimination in back-to-back games, the Lancers (30-28) pulled off the improbable, upsetting Knoxville Regional No. 2 seed Ohio State 3-1 and No. 3 seed USC Upstate 4-2 Saturday to move on to Sunday's regional championship round against No. 8 national seed Tennessee Sunday at 12 p.m. at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.
 
The Lancers, who have now won 15 of their past 18 games, kept up their midseason turnaround behind a pair of strong outings from the All-Big South pitching duo of Sydney Gay and Elizabeth McCarthy Saturday. Gay (15-15) twirled a four-hit complete game in Saturday's opener against Ohio State, and McCarthy (15-10) followed with 5.1 innings of two-run ball against USC Upstate before Gay polished off the win with a five-out save.

"It's not like being at home and having the fans with you there, but you know in your heart they're there with you," Gay said of the support shown to the team during graduation weekend on the Longwood campus in Farmville. "Just because we come from a small town, it doesn't mean we don't have a big group of people who supports us. Knowing that we have them with us, it gives us more confidence and lets us have more fun."
 
The win pushes the Lancers back to an NCAA Regional final for the second straight year following last season's surge to the Harrisonburg Regional final against No. 6 national seed James Madison. Longwood also won back-to-back elimination games on Saturday that year, defeating both Princeton and North Carolina before falling in Sunday's final to the host Dukes.

"We came in and had a large task in front of us," said Longwood head coach Kathy Riley. "For us to be able to able to play 14 quality innings like we did today, there's nothing to say except we were super resilient and I'm really proud of the kids."
 
Over the past three years, Longwood has now eliminated Virginia Tech (2015), Princeton (2016), North Carolina (2016), Ohio State (2017) and USC Upstate (2017) in NCAA Regional play. The Lancers, who have advanced to NCAA postseason play in four of the past five seasons, improved to 5-7 in regional play during the 10-year Division I era, becoming the Big South's new all-time leader in NCAA postseason victories.

Longwood junior Glenn Walters played hero in the first inning against the Spartans (45-13), mashing a bases-loaded, three-run triple that put the Lancers ahead for good. The Glen Allen, Va., native drove in four total runs on the day, sending in the first run of Longwood's 3-1 win in Saturday's victory over the Buckeyes with an RBI double.

"It was awesome," Walters said of her three-run triple against USC Upstate. "I really wanted to win that game and make history again. I just saw that first pitch and gave it a ride."

That triple from Walters helped the Lancers once again make history, as Walters alluded to. Not only has Longwood become a force within the Big South, but Longwood has etched its name among the most respected mid-major programs in the nation, joining powerhouse Louisiana-Lafayette and Fordham as the only three non-Power Five programs to advance to the NCAA Regional final in two of the last three seasons.

USC Upstate, a program that has made it to the NCAA Regionals in five consecutive seasons, entered the regional with one of the nation's top pitching staffs, sporting a 1.39 ERA that was the seventh-best in the country. They used those arms to down Ohio State 7-3 in Friday's opening round and carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning before SEC powerhouse Tennessee rallied for a 7-3 victory earlier Saturday.

The win also clinches the fifth straight 30-win season for the program and the 13th under Riley throughout her 20-year tenure leading the Longwood program, as she has never posted a record below .500 during her time heading the Lancer dugout.
 
However, after Longwood's upset win over Ohio State Saturday afternoon, it was the Lancers who carried the momentum into Saturday night's elimination matchup against the Spartans. Walters' three-run double sparked a four-run first inning that was enough of a cushion for McCarthy, who scattered eight hits over her 5.1 innings. Gay took over with one out in the sixth and needed just 20 pitches to record five consecutive outs and secure the win.
  
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