FARMVILLE, Va. – After opening the season with 17 consecutive road games, Longwood softball was excited for a home game.
 
Their play Wednesday against Marshall showed it.
 
Behind a pair of shutdown relief appearances from Leigha Hill, nearly perfect defense, and a lineup that banged out a combined 18 hits in the twinbill, the Lancers (6-13) swept a doubleheader against Marshall 5-2 and 7-4 in their 2021 debut at Lancer Field.
 
The wins extended a March resurgence for Longwood, which has won four of its past eight games after opening the season with a non-conference gauntlet that included matchups against three top-25 teams and three consecutive early-season tournaments on the road. The latest of those victories came against a Marshall team that entered Wednesday's doubleheader 6-1 overall, leading Conference USA in both slugging percentage and ERA, and anchored by CUSA Preseason Player of the Year Aly Harrell.
 
However, the Lancers countered Marshall's high-powered offense behind a group effort from the pitching staff, highlighted by a combined 7.1 innings of one-run ball from Hill. Coming out of the bullpen in both games, Hill earned the save in game one with 3.0 shutout innings and followed by securing the win in game two behind 4.1 innings of one-run ball.
 
"It's great to be home, first of all, so good to be back on campus," said Longwood first-year head coach Dr. Megan Brown. "These were great team wins. We pretty much emptied our bench tonight. Everybody's working, everybody's contributing, players are stepping up and taking advantage of their opportunities. We're putting all the little pieces together."
 
The Lancers also played nearly error-free defense across the 14 innings, making just one defensive miscue and killing several would-be Marshall rallies with a number of run-saving defensive plays. The Thundering Herd (6-3) went just 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 runners on base against a Lancer pitching staff that also got a 4.0-inning start and a win from ace Sydney Backstrom in game one and 2.1 innings of one-run relief from Angelina Sherba in game two.
 
"I'm proud of the work we've been doing to get here," Brown said. "We've played tough teams that have prepared us for this part of our season, and we're starting to see the pieces come together. I'm proud of our young ladies for growing and staying with it. It would have been easy to throw in the towel a few times this year, and they show up every day to work hard."
 
At the plate, Longwood freshman Lauren Fox had a coming-out party by going a combined 6-for-6 in the twinbill and stealing two bases. She went 3-for-3 in both games to spearhead a Longwood offense that batted .346 in the two-game set. Meanwhile, Junior Alexis Wayland caught both games and drove in five runs, including two with a game-two homer, while sophomore Nia Green and freshman Kayley DeVivi also racked up three hits and two RBI apiece.
 
"Coach Brown said it well after the Liberty game," Wayland said. "She said we could have come out and played teams that weren't top 25 and run all over them, but playing a top-25 team can show us what we need to work on. Obviously we've seen where we need to work, and tonight we were able to make those adjustments."
 
 
 
After playing six games in the past four days, the Lancers will get a two-day break to prepare for a three-game home series against Bucknell this Saturday and Sunday, March 13-14. That series opens with a 4 p.m. doubleheader Saturday and concludes with a noon finale Sunday.
 
Game One: Pitching, Defense & Aggressive Baserunning Lift Lancers Over Herd 5-2
 
In the home debut under first-year head coach Dr. Megan Brown, Longwood got seven strong innings from senior Sydney Backstrom and sophomore Leigha Hill and a 3-for-3 day from freshman outfielder Lauren Fox to cruise past Marshall 5-2 in game one of Wednesday's doubleheader at Lancer Field.
 
Backstrom (4-6) continued her early-season tear in the circle, scattering two runs over the game's first four innings before Hill came out of the bullpen to shut out the Thundering Herd (6-2) over the final three. Hill, a two-way player who leads Longwood with seven relief appearances, needed just 38 pitches to record the final nine outs and came away with her first career save to show for it.
 
Aiding Backstrom and Hill was a flawless effort from Longwood's defense, which played error-free for the second straight game. Longwood's gloves saved several runs throughout, including an over-the-shoulder grab in shallow left field by shortstop Mason Basdikis that stranded two on base in the top of the second.
 
At the plate, the Lancers made us of an aggressive approach on the basepaths to turn five hits into five runs. Fox's 3-for-3 day out of the No. 9 spot highlighted that effort, with the Ashburn, Va., native scoring twice and swiping one of Longwood's four bases.
 
Marshall got its runs on two swings of the bat, first on a solo homer to right-center field from Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year Aly Harrell in the top of the third and again on a bases-loaded groundout from Armani Brown in the top of the fourth. However, Backstrom bounced back to limit the damage to one run that inning, inducing a flyout to strand two on base.
 
Longwood broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a three-run rally that started with a walk and a steal by fox and ended with back-to-back two-out RBI knocks from Alexis Wayland and Nia Green. Wayland drove in the first of those runs with a well-hit single to left field that plated both Fox and Lauren Taylor, after which Green followed with an RBI single of her own that scored Basdikis.
 
Hill took over after that three-run outburst and protected the lead to the final out, allowing just four base runners in her four innings of work.
 
The win was Longwood's fourth straight in a home opener and handed Marshall ace Laney Jones (2-1) her first defeat of the season.
 
Game Two: Hill's Relief Outing, Wayland's Homer Power 7-5 Game Two Win
 
After recording the final nine outs to secure a win in game one, Leigha Hill continued her dominance into game two by coming out of the bullpen once again to allow just one run and two hits over 4.1 innings and lead Longwood to a series-clinching 7-5 win.
 
Hill was efficient once again in her second outing of the night, using just 45 pitchers and facing just two batters over her minimum after stepping into the circle in the top of the third. She did not walk or hit a single batter and was in line for another shutout relief appearance until Marshall designated player Saige Pye broke up a three-inning scoreless drought with a two-out solo homer in the top of the seventh.
 
Pye's long ball was the lone blemish on Hill's day but did little to overcome the three-run lead the Lancers built with an early rally highlighted by a first-inning home run from Alexis Wayland. Wayland's two-run blast was her first of the season and the first of two extra-base hits in the game for the junior catcher, who followed with an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth that sent junior teammate Sydney Jacobsen for the eventual game-winning run.
 
Along with Wayland's three RBI, freshman Kayley DeVivi drove in two runs of her own as part of a 3-for-4 night that included the first hits of her collegiate career. Her fellow freshman Lauren Fox stayed perfect at the plate and on the base paths, going 3-for-3 once again while stealing her second base of the day during Longwood's two-run fourth.
 
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