FARMVILLE, Va. – On Saturday afternoon, the Longwood baseball did just enough to scratch and claw for a doubleheader split against Oakland on Saturday afternoon at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
 
After the Grizzlies took game one 2-1 with timely hits that took advantage of untimely errors, the Lancers found a way to battle through game two and earn the walkoff win 3-2.
 
Justin Looney knocked home the game-winning run, his second RBI of the day, by poking a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Cullan Wadsworth from third. For Looney, it marked the second walkoff of his career at Longwood, with the first being a grand slam walkoff winner against NJIT in 2020.
 
"I thought we competed again all day today," Mau said. "Unfortunately it was only good enough for the one win, but those are two really tightly contested ball games. It's good that we get an opportunity to be in those situations this early in the season. It teaches us a lot about ourselves, what we can accomplish there in high pressure situations late in games, and some of the things we need to correct. I'd rather see that now than once we get to conference play. The first handful of games have put a lot of pressure on us, and I think that will help us down the road. "
 
The Longwood (4-3) pitching staff was excellent in both games, despite the game one loss. Starters Dylan Saale and Andrew Melnyk and relievers Logan Berrier and Aidan VanVickle proved to be a fearsome foursome, striking out a combined 18 batters while only giving up four runs, two earned, in 14 innings.
 
The Oakland (3-3) staff matched the Lancers pitch for pitch, with Brandon Deans, Hayden Nierman and Andrew Hill limiting Longwood to one run on four hits in the first game. Will Nigut and Seth Tucker only surrendered three runs, none earned, on six hits in game two.
 
Game 2: Longwood 3, Oakland 2
 
In game two, pitchers again reigned supreme.
 
Melnyk repeatedly bulldozed his way through Oakland's lineup, striking out a career-high nine in a career-best 6.1 innings of work. He gave up six hits and two walks that led to two runs, but the runs came on one of the craziest bounces of the day.
 
"That was the best Andrew Melnyk I've seen," Mau said about the 6'6 lefthander. "He was working fast and pounding the zone, making some big-time pitches."
 
In the top of the second, Oakland pieced together back-to-back singles. Then, Michael Stygles hit a fairly routine grounder to short that bounced off the field umpire's foot and caromed into left field to advance every runner one base and load them up. A sac fly and a single plated a pair of runs to put Oakland up 2-0.
 
The Lancer offense answered in its half of the second inning by taking advantage of Oakland miscues. Keondre Shelton worked a walk before Nate Blakeney was hit by a pitch, and an error on a failed pickoff scored Shelton from second. With Blakeney at third, Harris hit a grounder to short that brought him home to tie the score 2-2.
 
Oakland starter, Will Nigut, settled things down and pitched into the sixth inning. He struck out eight to two walks and five hits while being hit for the two runs, both unearned.
 
Melnyk escaped a little trouble in the sixth following a one-out triple and eventually exited in the seventh. VanVickle took over with a runner on second and one out, and he promptly struck out the two batters he faced.
 
"I thought we did a good job handling an infiend-in situation, throwing a key runner out at the plate in the sixth, and then a freshman to come into a situation like that and deliver with two big-time strikeouts in the top of the seventh to give us the shot to win it there at the end was huge," Mau said.
 
That set things up for the Lancer offense to get going in the seventh. Cullan Wadsworth doubled to left field before Oakland intentionally walked Jack Schnell. An error loaded the bases, and Looney sent Wadsworth home with his fly ball to center.
 
"Wads put a great swing on it to get us going there, and then Looney had a tough at bat, delivering us the sac fly to win it," Mau said.
 
VanVickle (1-0) earned the win for Longwood. Seth Tucker (0-1) was tagged with the loss for Oakland. Tucker surrendered one run on one hit and a walk in his one inning of work.
 
Game 1: Oakland 2, Longwood 1
 
Mistakes proved to be the difference in the opening game, as Oakland (3-2) turned a trio of Longwood (3-3) errors into two runs to take down Longwood 2-1 in a game where offense was hard to come by.
 
Hayden Nierman (1-0) earned the win for an Oakland staff that only gave up four hits and kept Longwood off the scoreboard after the opening inning. Nierman struck out a pair in three innings of relief work. Andrew Hill closed it out for the save, only surrendering one hit while striking out four in two innings for his first save of the season. Brandon Deans pitched the first two innings and danced around a bases-loaded jam in the first, only giving up one run on a hit and three walks.
 
For the Lancers, Saale (1-1) took a tough luck loss despite 4.1 excellent innings in his first career start. The true freshman struck out four against four hits and three walks that led to two unearned runs. Logan Berrier came on in relief and threw a career-best 2.2 innings. He struck out three while walking three without surrendering a hit or being charged with a run.
 
"What a great start by the freshman, Saale," Mau said. "I thought he was really good with all three pitches. Defensively we kind of hurt ourselves again with a couple miscues that we've got to be better at. Logan Berrier was really, really good in the back end there. We just couldn't come up with the timely hit. Offense was hard to come by today."
 
Each team scored an unearned run in the first, with Looney hitting a sacrifice fly to center field for the Lancers that plated Michael Peterson to tie the score at one.
 
The decisive run came in the fifth for Oakland. With runners on first and second, Brenton Phillips hit a ball to short, and the throw to first sailed wide. The lead runner scored to give Oakland the lead for good.
 
The Lancers put runners on in the fourth, fifth and sixth—with Wadsworth driving a deep fly ball to the wall that was caught in the fourth—but Nierman and Hill escaped without any damage all three times.
 
Oakland leads the series two games to one, but the Lancers have a chance to earn the split on Sunday afternoon in the finale. First pitch is set for noon at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
 
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