FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood's offense started rolling midway through the first game against Albany and never stopped. The Lancers (5-9) racked up a season-best 10 hits to win game one 8-6 before topping it with 12 hits to win game two 9-0.
 
In game one, Carlos Garrido capped a massive comeback by Longwood with a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh. The Lancers erased a six-run deficit with a big fifth inning before Garrido's first career home run. It was the third time this season the senior catcher has come up big in the clutch and driven in the game-winning run.
 
"He's composed, and he can handle that situation," said Longwood head coach Ryan Mau. "He told me later he thought that was a deep fly ball. I told him we knew it was gone. It was a great swing, a great at bat, a tough at bat, and he came up big when we needed him."
 
"The guy's played a lot of baseball for us and been around it. Even the year he sat because of injury, he's a student of the game. He's always constantly studying the pitchers and their tendencies and has a pretty good idea and a plan when he goes up in the box on how they are going to attack him."
 
Grant Keller led the way in game two and ripped a career high three doubles in his first three at-bats. The junior tied his career high in RBI (three) and runs scored (two).
 
"He's a guy that we need to get going, so it was good to have him have the day he had," said Mau.
 
Hunter Gilliam (4-8), Garrido (2-4), Keller (3-6) and Drayven Kowalski (2-4) all batted at least .500 on the day, and Cullan Wadsworth added four hits. The pitching staff combined to throw 14 shutout innings from the fifth inning of game one through the end of game two.
 
"Nobody's giving out W's, you've got to go take them from people," said Mau. "We've had some highlights throughout the first couple weeks. We've had some setbacks for sure, and we've learned a lot. But we've got to come out ready to compete and fight for wins, and I thought we did that today.
 
Longwood can sweep the series with a win on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is set for noon at Buddy Bolding Stadium.


Game 1: Longwood 8, Albany 6
 
Albany scored the first six runs of the game, and Longwood trailed 6-1 headed into the sixth inning before flipping the game completely around. Wadsworth tagged a double off the base of the right field wall to get the team going. Jawan McAllister walked, and he and Wadsworth pulled off a double steal before Wadsworth raced home on a wild pitch. After Gilliam walked, Nate Blakeney ripped an RBI line drive single to cut the lead to 6-3. De'Andre Pitts walked before Jacob Mitchell smoked a two RBI grounder through the left side to trim the lead to 6-5. Pitts raced home to tie the game when Keller hit a sacrifice fly to foul territory in left field.
 
"Wadsworth is doing a great job, especially with the loss of [Antwaun] Tucker in the leadoff spot," said Mau. "Cullan is doing an outstanding job of getting things started for us, and we strung together a ton of quality of at bats and were able to put up a big inning."
 
In the seventh, Wadsworth again got the offense going with a leadoff single. Two batters later Garrido hit his bomb to the right field scoreboard to make it 8-6.
 
Albany had jumped out to a 6-0 lead before running into Longwood reliever Josh Longabaugh in the fourth. Longabaugh came on with two on and two outs, but he induced a grounder in the infield to get out of the jam. The junior stayed on the attack and scattered three hits and a pair of walks while striking out three through three shutout innings.
 
"He came in and spun the breaking ball in the zone," Mau said. "That's what kept them off balance. He had both breaking balls going for him, the curve ball and the slider, and then when they're guessing that, then you can get the fastball in there. So he did a great job of competing."
 
Jon Peterson (2-0) took over on the mound in the seventh with two on and two outs, and the left-hander retired seven straight to close the game and earn the win. He struck out two 2.1 innings.
 
"The bullpen did an awesome job," said Mau. "We didn't get a great start, but for Josh Longabaugh and Jon Peterson to come in and put up zeroes the rest of the way allowed our offense to have a shot at putting up an inning and getting back in it."
 
Game 2: Longwood 9, Albany 0
 
Longwood rammed in four runs in the second inning and never looked back while cruising to the win in game two. Keller crushed the first of his three doubles to left field with two on to put the Lancers up 2-0.
 
"He took advantage of an opportunity today," said Mau. "We had a slash bunt. It was first and second, and we were going to slash. He showed and pulled back and smashed that ball in gap for a double, and it got him going and put together great at bats all day."
 
One batter later, Jacob Mitchell deposited his first home run of the season over the left field wall to make it 4-0.
 
Longwood starter Tyler Morgan (1-2) dominated on the mound after that in his best start of 2019. The junior struck out nine in seven shutout innings while only surrendering four hits and a walk.
 
"That's the Tyler Morgan we've all been waiting for," said Mau. "It was good to see it come out tonight. We needed it in a big way, obviously it was a big day for us. We were desperate for a win. We were trying to find a way to get a 'W' today, and we found two of them which is a great day."
 
The Lancers piled up six doubles in the game, with Kowalski, Blakeney and McAllister each picking up one in addition to Keller's three.
 
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