The First Pitch
•   After going 6-3 during a stretch of nine consecutive Big South games, Longwood resumes its grueling non-conference schedule this Wednesday with a doubleheader at ACC Powerhouse and 19th-ranked Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.
•   Virginia Tech will be the fourth top-25 team Longwood has faced this season and one of six on the schedule who have either been ranked or received votes in every USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll.
•   Longwood had faced No. 16 Georgia, No. 16 Duke, No. 18 South Carolina and a Liberty team that has received votes in every poll. Longwood will also face Commonwealth power James Madison twice.
•   The Lancers have one top-25 win to their credit this season, a 3-2 road victory at No. 16 Georgia on Feb. 20. That win was the program's first under first-year head coach
Dr. Megan Brown and came in the Lancers' second game of the year.
•   Longwood athletics director
Michelle Meadows is a 2010 inductee of the Virginia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame, and both an Atlantic 10 Softball Player of the Year and A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year. Also a three-time Academic All-American and a summa cum laude graduate from Virginia Tech, Meadows lettered four years with the Hokies from 1997-2000. She is in her third year as Longwood athletics director and 16th year with the Longwood athletics department.
•   Longwood's 11-game win streak from March 10-28 was the third longest in program history, trailing  only the 12-game tear by the 2016 Lancers and a 13-game streak by the 2015 squad.
Last Time Out
•   Snapping an 11-game win streak that was the program's longest since 2016, Longwood dropped a three-game Big South series to Campbell this past Friday and Saturday, 3-0, 9-0 and 6-1.Â
•   Campbell shut down a Lancer offense that entered the game averaging 6.7 runs and batting .318 during that 11-game tear, holding the Lancers to just one run on 12 hits in the three-game set.Â
•   The Big South series loss was Longwood's first since 2019 and snapped a streak of 20 consecutive Big South series wins.Â
•   Longwood ace
Sydney Backstrom held Campbell to a .231 average while 14.0 of 19.0 innings.
By The Numbers
•   Longwood ranks a Big South-best No. 75 in the latest NCAA Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) report. The Lancers are 25 spots ahead of the Big South's No. 2 team, Campbell (100), and 35th among non-Power 5 teams.
•   Longwood also received the No. 76 ranking in NCAA Strength of Schedule (SOS). The Lancers have faced four teams ranked among the NCAA's RPI top 50, including No. 9 Duke and No. 11 Liberty, and will also face No. 10 Virginia Tech Wednesday No. 15 James Madison on April 21.
•   Fourteen of Longwood's 17 home runs have come in the past 14 games. The Lancers hit just three homers in their first 14 games of the season.
•   Junior C
Alexis Wayland is the team's top hitter with runners in scoring position, batting .313 (10-of-32) in those situations. She leads the team and ranks third in the Big South with 22 RBI.
•   Junior 1B
Sydney Jacobsen has proven herself as one of the team's most clutch hitters, driving in a team-high 11 of her 19 RBI with two outs on the board. She is hitting a team-leading .313 (10-of-32) in two-out situations.
•   Junior DP
Madison Blair has shown Longwood's best command of the strike zone this season, drawing 12 walks and posting a team-best .414 on base percentage while striking out in a team-low 15.7 percent of her plate appearances. Blair has reached base safely in 15 of her past 17 games.
•   All-Big South senior
Sydney Backstrom has been named Big South Pitcher of the Week three times, tied for Longwood's most by one player in a single season since joining the Big South in 2013. Backstrom has won three of the past four awards.
•   Backstrom ranks among the NCAA's top 10 in innings pitched (117.2), complete games (13) and starts (18). She has thrown 60.6 percent of Longwood's innings and started 58.1 percent of the team's games.
•   Longwood has been one of the nation's top base-stealing teams this season, ranking 18th nationally with 2.19 stolen bases per game. Longwood averages 2.68 attempts per game and has been successful on 81.7 percent of those.
•   Junior 3B
Mason Basdikis is a perfect 20-for-20 stealing bases, which is the second-most steals without being caught by any player in the country. Basdikis has swiped 28 consecutive bases without being caught dating back to 2020.
Quotable
"We can quit and take the excuses and say it was just a bad weekend, or we can come in and go to work on Monday. I asked them what they wanted to do, and they said come in and go to work on Monday. It's part of life. Some days it's tough, some days it's great."
 — Longwood head coach
Dr. Megan Brown after Saturday's 6-1 loss to Campbell
Series History
•   Longwood and Virginia Tech renew an annual rivalry series Wednesday with a doubleheader in Blacksburg, Va. The Hokies lead the all-time series 26-14 and have won two in a row.
•   The teams have met every year since 2007, which covers every year since Longwood officially joined the Division I ranks beginning in 2008.Â
•   Virginia Tech has won four of the past five meetings since 2017 after Longwood won three straight from 2015-17.Â
•   The Hokies are 6-2 against Longwood when ranked in the national top 25.Â
•   Virginia Tech softball alum
Chelsea Whitcomb transferred to Longwood as a graduate student in 2019 and helped lead the Lancers to their fifth Big South Championship that year.
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