FARMVILLE, Va. – Nate Blakeney hit a walk-off single in game one, a 3-2 Longwood win, and the Lancers came up clutch at the plate several times in game two, a 7-4 Lancer victory, as Longwood swept Lehigh in a doubleheader Saturday at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
The wins for Longwood (15-30, 5-13 Big South) clinch the first winning series for the Lancers since they took two of three against Charleston Southern to open the conference slate in March.
"It's good for our mentality to know that we can win the full day," Longwood head coach
Ryan Mau said. "It was 18 innings of baseball so we had to lock in and find a way to get it done and the guys did a great job. Hopefully we can carry some of this momentum over into tomorrow and ultimately into the end of the season."
Longwood continually picked up clutch hits as the Lancers went 6-for-17 with runners in scoring position and with a man on third and less than two outs picked up five RBI between the two games.
"I thought we did a better job of manufacturing runs today when we needed to," Mau said. "The situational hitting was good. We laid down some sacrifices, executed some safety squeezes, and picked up the big hit with runners in scoring position. It was something we had been missing over the course of the last few weeks. It was good to see us step up and deliver in those situations."
Several Lancers had big days against Lehigh (21-28, 8-12 Patriot League), led by
Antwaun Tucker, who reached safely five times between the two games.
Sammy Miller and
Ryan Shull each picked up three hits, tied for the most hits for a Lancer Saturday, and
Justin Mitchell drove in four runs between the two games.
With the series in tow, the Lancers go for the sweep Sunday afternoon. Longwood has one sweep on the season, a three-game sweep at Savannah State that began the month of March.
Sunday is senior day for Longwood. The Lancers will honor its seven-player senior class of
James Barry,
Devin Gould,
Brandon Harvell,
Alex Lewis,
Luke Simpson,
Cody Wager, and
Tyler Wirsu before the start of the final home game of the season. First pitch against Lehigh is set for 1 p.m. Sunday.
Game One, Longwood 3 Lehigh 2
Game One Highlights (YouTube)
Blakeney came through with a single over the extended arm of Lehigh shortstop James Bleming to bring in Shull to lift Longwood to a 3-2 win in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader.
"It's great to have a freshman up in that situation and to step up and deliver," Mau said. "He put a really good swing on it and it's great to see him celebrate that walk-off hit."
The win broke up a seven-game losing streak for the Lancers as they took the first game of the series for the third time in the last four weekends, all on walk-offs.
Devin Gould (2-4) picked up the win with 2.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, holding Lehigh to one single and one walk, striking out three batters in the victory.
"Gould did a great job for us in game one," Mau said. "I thought that was one of his better outings of the season."
Gould inherited a runner in scoring position with one out in the seventh inning, representing the go-ahead run for Lehigh. The senior right-hander retired the next two hitters with relative ease and navigated through the Lehigh lineup with no runs allowed.
Senior right-handed starter
Cody Wager picked up a quality start, his team-leading fourth of the season, but received no decision in his final home start.
"Cody wasn't sharp early on, he'd be the first to tell you, but he battled," Mau said. "That's what you have to do. It's not every time that you take the mound that you're going to have your best stuff. The question is what you are going to do when you don't have it, and he competed. I thought he got a little better as the game went on and he gave us a chance to win."
Wager scattered five hits across 6.1 innings of work and allowed two runs with four strikeouts and one walk issued.
Lehigh got good pitching in the loss. Connor Donovan spun 6.0 innings of two-run ball before he was lifted for relief pitcher Chris Butera, who took the loss. Butera (1-1) allowed just one run on three hits in 2.1 innings out of the bullpen, but gave up the ninth-inning rally that won the game for Longwood.
Tucker had the lone multi-hit game of the first end of the doubleheader, going 2-for-4 with his conference-leading sixth triple. Tucker is fourth in the nation with six triples and Longwood leads the Big South with 15 as a team.
The Lancers had to battle out of a 2-0 hole in the sixth inning. After Lehigh got on the board in the fourth inning on a solo home run by Patrick Donnelly, the Mountain Hawks added to their lead in the sixth inning with an RBI double by the three-hitter, Jacen Nalesnik.
Longwood responded with a pair of runs in the sixth to tie the game.
Mac McCafferty walked to start the inning and
Scott Carter entered the game to run for the veteran catcher. After a balk moved Carter to second base,
Sammy Miller singled to right to bring him in. Miller stole second and moved to third on a ground out. Behind the count 1-2, Mitchell singled to center to bring in Miller and tie the game at two.
The Lancers rallied in the ninth to take the first game of the doubleheader. Shull doubled to right-center field with one out to put the winning run on base for the Lancers. After Lehigh intentionally walked Lewis to get to Blakeney, the freshman second baseman singled to left-center and Shull raced home to win the game with a head-first slide.
Game Two, Longwood 7 Lehigh 4
Game Two Highlights (YouTube)
Longwood took advantage of Lehigh mistakes and broke out for a nice offensive game in a 7-4 win to take game two of the doubleheader Saturday.
Mitchell and Shull combined for five RBI in game two, led by a three-RBI game by Mitchell. Shull went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI, one of three Lancers with multi-hit games. Shull was joined by
Sammy Miller, who was 2-for-5 with a run scored, and
Grant Keller, who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
Steven Farkas (1-2) picked up his first win of the season in his third quality start.
"I thought Farkas was OK today," Mau said. "I thought his stuff was just OK, but the mentality was right, he kept attacking hitters, and gave us an opportunity to win."
The sophomore southpaw spun 7.0 innings of two-run ball and held Lehigh to five hits with six strikeouts in his outing.
Cody Boydstun closed the door with his first save of the season, pitching a scoreless ninth inning with one strikeout.
"
Cody Boydstun in game two came in a tight, pressure situation and made some big-time pitches and helped us secure that win," Mau said.
Boydstun stepped into the game with the bases loaded and one out, tying run at the plate in a 7-3 game. Boydstun struck out the first man he faced, allowed one run to score on a fielder's choice, and Tucker made a racing grab on the warning track in left field to win it for the Lancers.
Longwood put together a big third inning, jumping out to a 3-0 lead on Lehigh starter Jason Reynolds (3-5). Harvell walked on three pitches and moved to third on a bunt single by Keller, advancing on a throwing error on a late flip to the bag at first. Two batters later, Tucker put down a push-bunt up the first base line and beat out the play to bring in Harvell, and advanced to second on an error as Lehigh tried again at first base on another late throw. Mitchell grounded out to plate Keller to double the Longwood lead. After
Michael Osinski walked, Shull singled to left-center and bring in a third run for the Lancers.
The Lancers scored a single run in the fifth inning on an RBI triple by Shull and then struck for three more in the sixth. With one out Keller and Miller singled in consecutive at-bats. After Tucker walked to load the bases, Mitchell singled up the middle to plate a pair. With Tucker at third base, Osinski put down a sacrifice bunt that plated Tucker and made Longwood's lead 7-0.
Lehigh rallied for three runs in the eighth inning and brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Bleming, the two hitter, before Boydstun entered the game to shut the door for the Lancer win, clinching the doubleheader sweep.
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