Farmville, Va- The Charleston Southern Buccaneers swept Friday's doubleheader and weekend series with a pair of wins.
Ryan Waldschmidt led the Buccaneers (21-28, 13-11) offense on the day with five hits in six at-bats and added four walks. The Charleston Southern offense as a whole had 33 hits.
Jack Schnell wrapped up his Longwood career with a four RBI-day and an opposite field homerun in game one. The Lancers offense had 20 hits on the day.
"This is just the beginning," commented head coach
Chad Oxendine on his first season as the head coach of Longwood baseball. "We had a lot of highs and a lot of lows. The back third of the season I felt like we just didn't really play well and we had to keep going back to the drawing board and figure out what happened. I'd like to thank all of the administration, the players, my staff, man what an unbelievable first year as a head coach."
"I told the guys,
Jack Schnell embodies what Longwood baseball is about," further commented Oxendine on his lone athletic senior this season,
Jack Schnell's departure. "He does everything right and he is a grinder. He's the first guy at the field everyday and the last one to leave. A yes sir, no sir kind of guy and he's a guy that as I have stated he will represent Longwood baseball for a long time. I'll talk to him, I'd love to have him back in some way or another on the staff next year. I think he'd be a heck of a coach and continue to push this thing forward"
Longwood finishes their season at 20-33 overall, their first time surpassing 20 wins since 2016, when they had 32. In conference play they went 10-14 or a winning percentage of.416 which is also their best since 2016 when they had a .583 conference winning percentage.
Game One: Buccaneers score in six straight innings to win 14-9 and clinch series
Longwood scored first in the opener when
Hayden Harris advanced on a balk from Chandler Woolridge
The Buccaneers responded by scoring 14 runs across seven innings to pull away and claim a thirteen-run lead. In the second third and fourth innings Charleston Southern scored eight runs with the help of three home-runs. Austen Izzio hit a two-run shot down the left field line in the second, Ryan Waldschmidt hit a two-run bomb to left center in the third,
Hayden Harris hit a solo-shot in the fourth in the Hogan McIntosh recorded two RBI and three hits in the span.
The Lancers mounted an eighth and ninth inning comeback with eight of their nine runs scored in that span.
Eric Chorba hit a double down the first base line to score
Hayden Harris and
Jim White singled to right to score
Justin Looney.
Jack Schnell then hit his seventh homer of the season with a three-run opposite field blast.
Charleston Southern tallied one insurance run via the sac fly in the ninth courtesy of Ajay Sczepkowski.
Longwood added two more in the ninth when Chorba hit a sac fly and a fielder's choice from Schnell was the last tally of the comeback.
Kevin Warunek (4-4) started on the mound for Longwood and picked up the loss after allowing three runs on three hits in 1.2 innings of work.
Chandler Woolridge (1-0) earned his first win of the season with a one run on one hit performance. He pitched five innings and struck out four.
Game Two: Charleston Southern Completes The Sweep Over Longwood With 18-4 Victory to finish the Weekend
The Buccaneers jumped to an early two run lead when Sczepkowski hit a two-run homer over the left field fence.
Longwood responded with one of their own when
Hunter Gilliam singled home
Michael Peterson in the home half of the first
Charleston Southern added seven more in the third and fourth innings. Four straight singles from Waldschmidt, Rodriguez, Aldrich and Low helped in the third while three straight singles from Asman, Waldschmidt and Rodriguez were the story in the fourth.
Justin Looney cranked a no-doubter in the home half of the fourth for a three-run-boost to cut into the Buccaneers lead.
The Buccaneers went on to score six more runs to finish the game and clinch the sweep.
Andrew Melnyk (2-5) started game two for Longwood and received the loss after he surrendered five runs on eight hits and struck out two in 2.2 innings.
Jerry Couch (3-3) earned the win after he finished with three hits and eight strikeouts in 3.2 innings pitched.
