The First Pitch
• Following Thursday's opening-round loss to No. 2 seed USC Upstate, No. 3 seed Longwood will face No. 4 seed Radford in a Big South Championship elimination game Friday at 11 a.m.
• A win would send the Lancers to Friday night's semifinal showdown against the winner of No. 1 seed Campbell and USC Upstate.
• The opening day loss marked the fourth time the Lancers dropped their Big South Championship opener, doing so in 2013, 2014 and 2018. Since joining the Big South in 2013, Longwood has never lost back-to-back games in the conference tournament, including the 2013 Big South Championship run in which they rattled off five straight wins after falling in the first round.
• The Lancers have won five of the past seven Big South Championship tournaments since joining the conference in 2013, winning in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.
• Longwood won six of its seven Big South regular-season series this season, including three-game sets against fellow tournament participants USC Upstate and Radford. Longwood's lone Big South series loss in 2021 was to league champion Campbell, who pulled off a 3-0 sweep on April 2-3.
• Longwood enters the Big South Championship armed with the Big South Pitcher of the Year in
Sydney Backstrom and All-Big South selections in 1B
Sydney Jacobsen (1st TM), UT
Mason Basdikis (2nd TM) and OF
Nia Green (HM). Longwood won Big South Championships with the Big South Pitcher of the Year, Elizabeth "Biz" McCarthy in 2015 and 2016.
Last Time Out
• Tiffany Domingue delivered a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning to send No. 2 seed USC Upstate past No. 3 seed Longwood 5-4 in game one of the 2021 Big South Championship Thursday afternoon at Brinkley Softball Stadium.
• Big South Pitcher of the Year
Sydney Backstrom threw a complete game for Longwood, holding USC Upstate to five hits and three earned runs with nine punchouts. However, USC Upstate scored two unearned runs in the first inning follow back-to-back Lancer errors.
• Domingue went 2-for-4 with two RBI, both of which were go-ahead strikes.
By The Numbers
• Longwood is 9-3 as the No. 3 seed in the Big South Championship. The Lancers have won Big South titles in both appearances as the No. 3 seed, including a 5-1 run through the 2013 tournament and a 4-1 run in 2017.
• Longwood is 19-7 when playing as the higher seed and 5-2 as the lower seed.
• Longwood is 14-2 when facing elimination in the Big South Championship, including 11-2 when playing a lower-seeded team.
• With a steal in Thursday's Big South Championship opener against USC Upstate, All-Big South utility player
Mason Basdikis became the third player in school history to record 30 steals in a single season. She matched the 30 stolen bases by
Chelsea Whitcomb in 2019 and trails only the 36 swiped by Jodi Wolff-Coussoulos in 2000.
• With 125 steals this season, Longwood is only the second team in program history to surpass the century mark in that category. Only the 1999 Lancer squad stole more bases in the program's history, swiping 136 in 53 games.
• Big South Pitcher of the Year
Sydney Backstrom struck out nine batters Thursday, which ties for the second-most punchouts by a Lancer in a Big South tournament game. The performance matched Big South Tournament MVP Libby Morris and two-time Big South Pitcher of the Year Elizabeth McCarthy, who struck out nine in a game, and trails only former Big South Tournament MVP
Sydney Gay who fanned 10 against Presbyterian on May 13, 2016.
• Shortstop
Kasey Carr has not made an error in 14 consecutive games and 62 consecutive fielding chances, and has just three miscues in 39 games this season. Her .975 fielding percentage is the highest of any Big South shortstop.
• Graduate student 2B
Destiny Martinez has reached base safely in eight straight games. She is hitting .313 with a .500 on base percentage, six steals, five RBI and three runs in that span.
• Longwood is 16-1 when leading after the third inning and 18-0 when leading after the sixth.
• The Lancers have mashed 18 extra-base hits in the past seven games.
Quotable
"This was a tough loss, without question. We still have a clear path, so we just have to keep taking one step forward at a time. Those who do are always champions."
— Longwood head coach
Dr. Megan Brown following Thursday's 5-4 opening-round loss to No. 2 seed USC Upstate
Series History
• Longwood and Radford will meet for the 51st time in series history and fourth time this season in Friday's Big South Championship elimination game.
• The Lancers have dominated the series since joining the Big South in 2013, amassing 20-2 regular-season record against the Highlanders. The teams are tied 2-2 when facing each other in the Big South Championship tournament.
• Two of Radford's four wins against Longwood since 2013 have come in the Big South postseason, including back-to-back wins in the 2018 tournament that eliminated the Lancers and cut short their shot at a four-peat Big South Championship.
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Sydney Backstrom is 4-2 with one save and a 2.86 ERA in eight career appearances in the series. She is 2-0 with a 2.50 ERA this season.
#GoWood
