The First Pitch:
• Longwood returns home for a three-game series against Delaware State before embarking on its second-longest road trip of the season next week.
• The Lancers are 2-1 all time against Delaware State, with the last meeting between the two teams taking place in 2006.
• After the first two weeks of the season, Longwood will have played three top 25 teams. Longwood has already played No. 19 (at the time) Virginia and No. 12 North Carolina, and the Lancers will also play No. 21 N.C. State on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
• The trip to N.C. State kicks off a seven-game road swing that runs through the next two weeks. Longwood will travel to Liberty, Bethune-Cookman and College of Charleston before returning home to host Iona.
• The longest road trip of the season is an eight-game venture that sees the Lancers open with back-to-back conference trips on the road to Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville with midweek trips to VCU and Richmond. The trip spans from Friday, March 17 to Tuesday, March 28.
• In the young season,
Hayden Harris leads the team with a .357 batting average, and he and
Eliot Dix are the regular starters hitting above .300.
• Dix was an All-Big South Second Team selection a year ago after battling an injury. He has a team-best five RBI on the young season.
Last Midweek/Series Notes:
• Longwood fell on back-to-back days to ACC powerhouses Virginia and North Carolina.
• The 19th ranked Cavaliers used an overwhelming offense to strike early and often against the Lancers, taking down Longwood 26-2.
•
James Nelson swatted a two-run home run home run to put Longwood on the board late in the contest for his first home run of the season.
• On Wedneseday, the Lancers hung around early before 12th ranked North Carolina pulled away late. The Tar Heels used six runs in the last three innings to win 10-0.
•
Cole Taylor was solid in his first start of the 2023 campaign. He gave up two runs in three innings of work, and he held UNC scoreless over the opening two innings.
• The Lancers had a chance to equalize in the top of the fourth after UNC took a 2-0 lead, but
Eliot Dix was doubled up on a Greg Ryan line drive to third.
Around The Bases:
• Longwood was picked to finish sixth in the Big South Preseason Poll after finishing eighth in the final standings in 2022.
• The Lancers are second in the Big South in walks drawn with 29, three behind Campbell.
• Longwood is fourth in home runs with four through five games.
• Four different players have homered for the Lancers:
Eliot Dix,
Gregory Ryan,
Hayden Harris and
James Nelson.
• Nelson hit the most recent home run, swatting a two-run home run at No. 19 Virginia on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
•
Eliot Dix and
Gregory Ryan are both in the top 10 in the league in RBI. Dix sits tied for fifth with five. Ryan is tied for ninth with four.
• Dix also leads the team with a pair of multi-hit games.
•
Hayden Harris is riding a four-game hitting streak, the top such streak on the Lancers. He is hitting .385 (5-13).
• The Lancer pitching staff is tied fifth in the Big South in strikeouts with 41.
• On the mound,
Ryan Miller is tied for second in the Big South with eight strikeouts. He struck out eight in six scoreless innings in his Lancer debut.
•
Andrew Melnyk struck out half the batters he faced in his first appearance of the 2023 season. The lefthander struck out six in 3.1 innings of work on Sunday, Feb. 19.
• 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.
•
Michael Tolson tied for fifth in the Big South with four saves as Longwood's closer a season ago.
#GoWood #HorsePower
