Baseball Season Is Here!

Lancers Host Mount St. Mary's For Weekend Series

Games 1-3 vs. Mount St. Mary's (0-0)
Date & Time	February 17-19 \| 4 p.m., 2 p.m., 1 p.m.
Location	Farmville, Va. (Buddy Bolding Stadium)
Game Notes	Longwood \| Big South
Statistics	Longwood
Live Stats	Live Stats
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers \| @LongwoodBase

The First Pitch:

Longwood opens the season with back-to-back weekends at home with matchups against Top 25 foes sprinkled in the midweek.
The Lancers will host Mount St. Mary's for the first time as a Division I program to open the season.
Longwood last played The Mount in 1988, and Longwood is 18-2 all time against the program.
The Lancers then host Delaware State the following weekend, with the two sides last playing in 2006. Longwood is 2-1 all time against the Hornets.
In between, the Lancers will travel to take on No. 19 Virginia and No. 12 North Carolina on back-to-back days. Longwood also plays at No. 21 N.C. State to close the month of February.
Longwood has two road trips that span seven or more games. The first opens with a trip to #21 N.C. State and includes trips to Liberty, Bethune-Cookman and Charleston Southern.
The team's longest road swing is eight straight, which includes their first two Big South trips of the season. Longwood heads to Gardner-Webb, VCU, UNC Asheville and Richmond consecutively.
Eliot Dix is Longwood's top hitter returning after earning All-Big South Second Team honors a season ago despite battling an injury.
Four teams will make the Big South Tournament in June, down from six a season ago.

Last Season's Notes:

Longwood finished just outside of the playoffs a season ago, which was Chad Oxendine's first at the helm of the program.
The Lancers finished 10-14 in Big South play, which marked the best winning percentage since the squad that went 14-10 in 2016 and made a run in the Big South Tournament.
Longwood was one of only three teams to beat Campbell during Big South play.
Eliot Dix was one of the top hitters in the Big South a season ago, posting a .341 batting average that was the top mark on the team.
Dix upped his average to .382 in Big South play, the fifth-best mark in conferene games in the league.
On the mound, Logan Berrier returns as the top arm for the Lancers. The right-hander excelled out of the bullpen and posted a team-best 2.87 ERA. He also struck out 33 in 37.2 innings of work over 18 appearances. The North Las Vegas native added one save.
Michael Tolson served as the team's closer and posted a team-best four saves in 17 appearances. He struck out 26 in 25 innings.

By The Numbers:

Longwood was picked to finish sixth in the Big South Preseason Poll after finishing eighth in the final standings in 2022.
The Lancers will face three teams that are in the D1Baseball Top 25 within the first two weeks of the season.
Longwood will travel to play No. 19 Virginia, No. 12 North Carolina and No. 21 N.C. State before the calendar turns to March.
In Head Coach Chad Oxendine's first season last year, the Lancers posted 20 wins for the first time since 2016.
In addition, the team had its best conference winning percentage (.471, 10-14)) since that 2016 season saw the Lancers go 14-10 in Big South play.
The Lancers were fourth in the Big South in stolen bases last year, swiping 79 as a team.
The offense posted the fifth-best on-base percentage in the Big South as well (0.363).
Longwood did so in part thanks to drawing the fifth-most walks in the Big South (234).
The offense also finished fifth in the Big South in runs scored (336).
Eliot Dix's .341 batting average ranked fourth-best in the Big South, and his .424 on-base percentage was good for 13th-best.
Michael Dolberry stole 17 bases and was tied for ninth most in the Big South. He was 17-20 on stolen base attempts on the season.

#GoWood #HorsePower