FARMVILLE, Va. – March Madness? More like May Madness.

In a showdown between two of the top three softball teams in the Big South, Longwood (26-25, 14-6 Big South) used a suicide squeeze from Madison Blair and a one-hitter from Sydney Backstrom to take game one from USC Upstate 2-1 and followed with a walk-off sacrifice fly by Mason Basdikis to win game two 9-8 in extra innings and sweep a Saturday doubleheader over the Spartans at Lancer Field.

Longwood's one-run wins came in a critical Big South series at the end of the regular season, with USC Upstate (25-15, 12-5 Big South) fighting to hold on to the league's No. 2 seed for the upcoming Big South Championship on May 13-15 and the Lancers battling to move up from their current No. 3 position.

Both victories came by way of late-game heroics, as the junior Blair executed a risky suicide squeeze to break open a 1-1 deadlock in the bottom of the fifth in game one, and her classmate Basdikis drove in the tying run in the bottom of the sixth inning of game two and followed with her walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth.

"That's the nature of May. It's that time of year," said first-year Longwood head coach Dr. Megan Brown, whose Lancers secured at least a third-place finish in the Big South standings with Saturday's sweep.

The wins were Longwood's sixth and seventh in a row against USC Upstate and improved the Lancers to 6-0 against the mid-major powerhouse Spartans since they joined the Big South in 2019. The Lancers are only the second team to win a Big South series against USC Upstate this season and will have a shot at becoming the first to sweep the Spartans in 2021 in Sunday's finale at 1 p.m.

"I'm extremely pleased with our effort," Brown said. "Our young ladies came out today to do a job, and I was very proud they showed up and did it. With classes ending and finals this week, we've had some time to work on a few things, some execution pieces we've been spending time on. It was good to see good at bats and some good team defense."

Along with Basdikis' two hits and late-game RBI in game two, Longwood's senior class – which was honored before the game for Senior Day – provided plenty of highlights of their own. Graduate students and fifth-year starting infielders Kasey Carr and Destiny Martinez combined for four hits, four RBI and errorless defense in the middle infield, with Martinez driving in runs in both games. Senior Leah Powell also contributed at the plate in her swan-song series at Lancer Field, going 3-for-6 with two doubles and three runs – including the game-winner on Blair's squeeze bunt.

In the circle, senior ace Sydney Backstrom (19-11) threw a one-hitter in game one to out-duel fellow Big South Pitcher of the Year candidate Mallie Brown in the 2-1 victory. Her classmate Arleigh Wood also contributed out of the bullpen in game two, taking over for Backstrom in the second inning and recording eight outs before yielding to junior Angelina Sherba (1-0), who finished out the game with 4.1 innings of relief and a win.

"I'm always pleased when our team plays together as a whole," Brown said. "It's good to have someone shine, and that's always a plus, but we practice to play as a team. Today we looked a lot like a team."

Game One: Lancers Use Small Ball & Backstrom's One-Hitter to Topple Spartans 2-1 in Opener.

Behind an efficient one-hitter from ace Sydney Backstrom and a go-ahead suicide squeeze bunt by cleanup hitter Madison Blair, Longwood gutted out a 2-1 win over fellow Big South contender USC Upstate in the series opener Saturday afternoon at Lancer Field.

The win opened a critical series between two of the top three teams in the Big South, with USC Upstate sitting in second place in the league standings just 1.5 games ahead of third-place Longwood.

In a showdown between two Big South Pitcher of the Year contenders, Backstrom (19-11) out-dueled USC Upstate ace Mallie Brown (10-4) with a 77-pitch complete game in which she allowed just three Spartans to reach safely and only one of those to advance past first base. That performance came against a USC Upstate lineup that entered the game as the Big South leader in batting average and among the league's top two in on base percentage, slugging and runs scored, but managed a lone single off the Big South leader in wins, opponent batting average and shutouts.

Brown kept pace with Backstrom until the bottom of the fifth when the Lancers' small-ball approach set up Blair to bunt in senior Leah Powell for the go-ahead run. That sequence started when Powell was hit by her Big South-leading 12th pitch of the season to start the inning, stole second and then moved to third on Sydney Jacobsen's flyout to right field. Blair then stepped to the plate with one out and dropped the second pitch she saw between the plate and the mound, giving just enough time for Powell to score from third after she left on the pitch.

The loss was Brown's first in Big South play this season and only her second defeat since March 12. Meanwhile, the win was Backstrom's third straight in conference play and improved her to a league-best 11-3 in Big South games.

Longwood also got some early-game heroics from senior Destiny Martinez, who took advantage of a drawn-in defense by blasting a line drive to the right-field gap that rolled all the way to the wall for an RBI double. That two-out knock was only the 12th career double for the fifth-year senior but gave the Lancers a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second.

USC Upstate reclaimed that run in the top of the fourth on Savannah Grigsby's two-out infield single, which Martinez stopped with a diving catch but could not get to first base in time to record an out. However, that would be the last run Backstrom allowed as she faced the minimum the rest of the way and ended the game with a line-out double play that senior shortstop Kasey Carr gloved and threw back across the diamond to Sydney Jacobsen for the game-ending out.

Game Two: Basdikis's Late-Game Heroics Cap Gut-Check 9-8 Extra-Inning Win in Game Two

Junior third baseman Mason Basdikis made the most of her final two plate appearances, tying the game with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the sixth and ending it with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth to send Longwood to a 9-8, extra-inning win in game two against USC Upstate.

Basdikis finished 2-for-3 out of the nine-hole and helped ignite a game-changing seven-run rally in the third inning, which was Longwood's biggest single-inning scoring outburst of the season. She also swiped her 28th base of the season, which was her 36th consecutive swipe without being caught dating back to the start of her sophomore season.

Basdikis was one of multiple Lancers to contribute at the plate as five different batters drove in runs, seven crossed the plate, and Longwood tagged 10 hits overall. Basdikis, Nia Green and Destiny Martinez each drove in two runs, with Green delivering hers with a two-run homer and Martinez a two-run single – both during that third-inning rally.

But even after Longwood's big inning turned the game on its head and gave the Lancers a 7-3 lead, USC Upstate refused to back down and clawed its way back in the next two innings. They repaid the favor in the top of the fifth by turning three hits into four runs, all of which came after reliever Angelina Sherba (4-3) retired the first two batters she faced. That two-run rally reclaimed the lead for USC Upstate at 8-7 and put the Lancers within nine outs of a comeback defeat.

But USC Upstate reliever Adison Yoder could not silence Longwood's bats, as the Lancers battled back to stage a sixth-inning rally that began with a one-out double from Powell, continued with a sacrifice bunt from Lauren Taylor that pushed her to third, and ended when Basdikis drove her two-out single back up the middle against a pulled-in infield.

With the score tied at 8-8, Sherba regained her form and worked back-to-back scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, overcoming lone singles in both of those innings. Longwood had a chance to win it in the seventh inning, but Yoder stranded two in scoring position by inducing back-to-back groundouts to send the game to extra innings.

However, the Lancers regained the momentum in the bottom of the eighth thanks to another rally-starting double from Powell to the right-field gap. Taylor followed by beating out an attempted sacrifice bunt for an infield single, and – after USC Upstate foiled a double steal but had to settle for letting Taylor move to third – Basdikis finished the game off with her sacrifice fly down the left field line.

The marathon win improved Longwood to 3-0 in extra-inning games this season and 9-3 in one-run contests this season.

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