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Longwood University Athletics

Baseball Opens Up 2021 Season At The Citadel

Baseball Opens Up 2021 Season At The Citadel

Baseball /
Games 1-3: Longwood (0-0) at The Citadel (0-0)
Date & Time Game 1: Feb. 19, 2021 • 4 p.m.
Game 2: Feb. 20, 2021 • 4 p.m.
Game 3: Feb. 20, 2021 • 1 p.m.
Location Charleston, S.C. (Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park)
Game Notes Longwood (PDF) | The Citadel 
Statistics Longwood 2020 Stats (HTML) | The Citadel | Big South
Live Stats All Games: The Citadel Live Stats
Video/TV ESPN+: Game 1 • Game 2 • Game 3

Lancer Leadoff
  • Longwood opens on the road for the first time since a 2018 season-opening trip to Auburn.
  • The Lancers will play a 50-game schedule with 10 non-conference matchups and 40 Big South tests.
  • The 40 Big South games are the most conference games in a season for Longwood in the team's Division I history.
  • Longwood's non-conference opponents will be The Citadel, North Carolina Central, Oakland and Norfolk State. Of those teams, the Lancers have never played against Oakland.
  • Longwood and The Citadel haven't played since 2005, when the two sides split a pair of games.
  • The Lancers played 17 non-conference games in 2020 before the remainder of the season was canceled by the Big South on the eve of conference play. 
  • Under head coach Ryan Mau, Longwood's pitching staff has ranked at or near the top of the Big South in strikeouts, finishing in the top three of the league four times in his six seasons at the helm. 
By The Numbers
  • Longwood opens the season on the road for the first time since a trip to SEC power Auburn in 2018.
  • The Lancers play 24 of their 50 games on the road this season and have no neutral-site games.
  • Longwood topped the Big South in strikeouts per nine innings while finishing second in total strikeouts, the fourth time in six seasons under head coach Ryan Mau the Lancers have finished in the top three in the conference in strikeouts.
  • The Lancer pitching staff struck out 10.4 batters per nine innings, the only team in the Big South to average double-digit strikeouts per nine innings. Meanwhile, the team's 167 strikeouts were one behind Charleston Southern's 168.
  • Freshman right-hander Dominick D'Ercole ranked 10th in the Big South with a team-best 22 strikeouts. He racked up 10 in his final start of 2020, a five-inning effort against Ball State where he only surrendered two runs, one earned.
  • Under Coach Mau, the Lancers have consistently ranked near the top of the Big South in strikeouts. In 2019, the Lancers were fourth with 411 K's. In 2018, the Lancers were third with 468 K's. In 2017, Longwood led the Big South with 511 punchouts in 2017, breaking the school's D-I record of 440.  That season, Longwood was also third in the nation with 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings. The Lancers were fifth in the Big South in 2016 with 404 K's and third in 2015 with 440 K's.
  • Longwood freshman Justin Looney walked off NJIT with his fitrst collegiate homer by punching out a grand slam on Saturday, February 22 in the bottom of the ninth.
  • The walkoff homer was Longwood's first walkoff homer since Michael Osinski delivered a walkoff blast against Winthrop in 2017 in a 9-7 win. 
  • The outfield duo of Michael Peterson and Cullan Wadsworth had a nose for home while on the bases. The duo combined to score 28 runs in 79 at bats in 2020, good for 33 percent of Longwood's scoring.
  • Wadsworth tied for third in the Big South with 15 runs scored and did so on 15 hits in only 41 at bats.
  • Meanwhile, Peterson racked up 13 runs scored in 38 at bats while posting 14 hits. 
  • Wadsworth also drove in nine runs and had seven extra base hits, including one homer. All told, he either scored or drove in 23 of the team's 83 runs (27 percent). 

Scouting The Citadel
  • Longwood takes on The Citadel to open the 2021 season. The two teams haven't played since 2005 and have met five times in all, with Longwood winning three of those matchups.
  • Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down the baseball season, The Citadel went 10-6 in non-conference contests in 2020, going 9-4 at home and 1-2 on the road. The team had weekend sweeps over Coppin State and Saint Peter's while also winning two of three against Yale. The team's lone road win was at Charleston Southern.
  • The majority of the team's roster returns, and second baseman Tyler Corbitt was selected to the preseason All-Southern Conference Second Team. 
  • Offensively, The Citadel hit .294 as a team with 46 extra-base hits: 31 doubles, nine triples and six home runs. Six players, five of whom return, had at least 10 RBI. The Citadel also went 30-34 on stolen bases.
  • Corbitt was one of two players who hit multiple home runs, and he posted a .349/.413/.524 slash line with 10 RBI and two triples. Shortstop Tilo Skole led the way with a .377 batting average while adding 11 RBI. Jeffrey Brown added 10 RBI while hitting .350 with five doubles and three triples to go with eight stolen bases on 10 attempts. 
  • On the mound, the team posted a 3.80 ERA while holding opponents to a .224 batting average. Two of the team's four pitchers who started at least two games last season return.
  • Cameron Reeves leads the pitching staff after posting a  4-0 record in four starts with a 1.04 ERA in 26 innings with a team-best 32 strikeouts. Lathan Todd also returns off a 1-1 season in four starts with a 4.91 ERA in 18.1 innings with 14 strikeouts. Out of the bullpen, Devin Beckley made a team-high 11 appearances and racked up 23 strikeouts in 12.1 innings. Gant Starling had the team's two saves with 14 strikeouts in 10 innings over eight appearances.
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