FARMVILLE, Va. - The final conference series of the regular season is here and there is so much left to be decided. 

The Big South continues to see a dead lock three-way tie for second place with Longwood, Campbell, and Presbyterian going into the final weekend of the regular season. 

Longwood is looking to connect three wins against the current fifth place team in the conference out of Rock Hill South Carolina. 

The Lancers are coming off a conference sweep against Gardner-Webb, and aspires to finish on a high note, and win streak before entering postseason play next Wednesday right here in Farmville. 

The Big South Championship will begin May 11 and go through Saturday May 14, with the final seeding being released Sunday May 8 after the final regular season game. 


LONGWOOD LANCER GAME NOTES
LONGWOOD LIVE STATS 
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The First Pitch:

• Longwood (27-22) is still locked in a three way tie for second in the Big South with only one more weekend of regular season play left for every team. 
• After the weekend sweep, Longwood is locked into the postseason play (top 6), but the place will be determined after this weekend due to the tie.
• Despite playing 13 teams amongst the countries top RBI rankings, including six top 25 teams at the time they played them, with the rest receiving votes, Longwood still sports a better record than the most recent season. Longwood has remained ranked itself in the top 60 in the countries RPI chart, now represented in 61st. 
• Sydney Backstrom has now written her name in the Longwood record book in several different areas. Most recently, this weekend she took over the record for most strikeouts in a single game with 16 strikeouts in game three. Backstrom is also the new career strikeout leader with 712, and single-season strikeout leader with 241 in 2022.
• Jaden Pone sits in second overall in the Big South with a .395 b/avg on the year, first in the Big South with total hits (58), and second in stolen bases with 23. The freshman is also creeping up the stolen bases leaderboard at Longwood, as well as total hits in a single season - 10 away from cracking the top six.
• Senior Alexis Wayland has started every game for the Lancers, all except one from behind the plate. Wayland is tied for second in the conference with 14 put outs caught stealing - ranking her 12th in the country with the defensive number.
• Longwood has won five of the past eight Big South Championship tournaments since joining the conference in 2013 (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019).

 
By The Numbers:

• Longwood's ace, Sydney Backstrom (19-11), was picked as the Preseason Pitcher of the Year in the conference. Backstrom earned her fifth Big South Pitcher of the Week honor this past week following two no-hitters over the weekend for the super-senior. Backstrom has a new single-season best of 241 strikeouts, a 1.75 ERA, and has a personal season best .157 b/avg against her.
• Backstrom also set the new Longwood record for strikeouts in a single-game with 16 in game three against Gardner-Webb on May 1st.   
• Backstrom sits ranked on top of the Big South charts up to this point of the season in categories including hits through seven innings (3.94), ERA (1.64), innings pitched (6th in the country, 191.2), and total saves (3), and shutouts (7, 17th in the country).
• Alexis Wayland has had a stellar senior year. She leads the team with 32 RBI's, six home runs, three triples, and 11 doubles. Wayland now has a total of 121 career RBI's. This number puts her eight RBI's away from cracking the record books top ten.
• Wayland has started behind the plate in all but one game for the Lancers. She has 359 PO's and ranks 12th in the country with 14 PO caught stealing. Wayland has a .316 b/avg on the season and continues to lead Longwood with a .542 slug%.  Wayland hit her first multi-home run game against NC A&T where the senior knocked back-to-back home runs in game one out of Lancer Field. This puts her in the Lancer record book amongst only a few who have sported a multi-home run game.
• Standout freshman Jaden Pone, continues to be one of the most reliant, and efficient players at the plate for Longwood. The freshman earned her second Big South weekly honor after going 7-8 from the plate last week, with a slug% .875.
• Pone is 23-31 (sb-sa), tied for second most in the Big South. She leads Longwood with runs (31), b/avg (.397), and total bases (71). Pone leads both the team and the conference in total hits with 62. 
• Lauren Taylor, Korynna Anderson, Sydney Jacobsen, and Kayley Devivi have all made impacts offensively for Longwood.
• Jacobsen has stepped up over the last few weeks, and now has 20 RBI, .311 b/avg, .492 slug%, and five home runs on the year. 
• Anderson now has 19 RBI on the year, with a .265 b/avg and .442 slug%.

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