FARMVILLE, Va. – Eliot Dix ripped off five hits, and Hayden Harris had four, and Longwood baseball snapped a seven-game losing streak to in-state foe Richmond on Wednesday afternoon. The Lancers (7-12) took down Richmond 7-5 after outhitting the Spiders.
 
SCORE:
 
                       R         H         E
UR                 5         10       4
LWU              7         13       0
 
Top Longwood Performers:
 
Eliot Dix: 5-5, R, RBI, 2B, SB
Hayden Harris: 4-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 3B
Drew Camp: 2-4, R, 2 RBI, SF
Guillermo Garcia: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, SV
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
The Lancers jumped out to an early lead and won their fourth straight game as Harris and Dix led the charge. After a sacrifice fly gave Longwood a 1-0 lead in the first, Harris smoked a two-run triple in the second inning for a three-run lead. It was the first triple of his Lancer career. Dix followed it up one batter later with an RBI single in the infield to give Longwood a 4-0 advantage.
 
However, Richmond battled back into the game. After cutting the lead to three in the fourth, the Spiders loaded the bases in the seventh. Jake Elbeery smoked a two-out grand slam to right field for a 5-4 lead.
 
The advantage was short lived though, as the Lancers had answers. Ethan Barnes, the reigning Big South Freshman of the Week, poked an RBI double to right-center to even the score at five.
 
Kevin Warunek came on to pitch the eighth for Longwood, and he worked around a pair of base hits with a pair of strikeouts to keep the score locked at five.
 
Harris led off the bottom half of the eighth with his fourth hit of the game, and Dix roped a double down the right field line to put runners at second and third with no outs. Justin Looney came on to pinch hit after a Richmond pitching change, and he placed a perfect suicide squeeze bunt down that gave Longwood a 6-5 lead. Camp added some insurance by singling home Dix one batter later to make it 7-5.
 
Guillermo Garcia, Jr. came on for Warunek to pitch the ninth, and he sent the Spiders down in order. Garcia earned his second save of the 2023 campaign while Warunek earned the relief win. Cole Taylor had the start for Longwood and tossed four innings of one-run ball. He struck out two while giving up four hits and walking three.
 
Matthew Anderson (0-1) took the loss for Richmond.
 
WHAT THEY SAID:
 
"Cole Taylor threw the ball really well and gave us a chance to win there," said Head Coach Chad Oxendine of his pitching staff. "The bullpen, for the most part—I know Dylan Saale gave up the grand slam, but those guys competed and kept us in the game. We were able to go attack some left-on-left matchups with Kevin Warunek back, and with Sean Gibbons and Ethan Walker. Getting Garcia back on the mound after this weekend was important to us, and he did exactly what he should do."
 
"For me, it's big," Oxendine said when asked what it means to get the win over Richmond. "That's a good program. I talk about this a lot: the little things that get us going. We've got guys that have been in our program for five years that have never beaten Richmond. For us, we said it might be a little thing, but it is a big thing for them. Little wins are hopefully going to translate to getting us going this weekend in conference play."
 
"We want to be able to play offense if Dix or Gregory Ryan isn't hitting that day, we can still create some runs. That's how we put our team together," Oxendine added about how his team scored on a variety of plays. "Obviously late in the game, Dix came up with a big double. We put Justin Looney in, and he knew exactly what he was supposed to do and got the job done. Then Drew Camp comes up with a big hit to get us to seven runs in the bottom of the eighth."
 
"I don't know if any of Dix's hits went 200 feet, except the double, I'll give him credit on that," Oxendine said with a laugh while talking about Dix and Harris combining for nine base hits. "Those guys are table setters. When Harris, Dix and Ryan are on base and getting going, it pumps our team up, and we know we can compete and play with anyone. It's big when you get a leadoff guy on in any inning, and we were successful in doing that tonight."
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
 
Longwood last beat Richmond in 2013.
 
Ethan Walker threw a scoreless relief inning in the fifth. The freshman left-hander struck out one against one hit.
 
Kevin Warunek made his first appearance on the mound for Longwood with his relief work in the eighth.
 
Garcia earned his second save of the season after also earning the save in the team's win at Bethune-Cookman on March 3.
 
Dix tied a career high with five base hits. He had five hits against Maryland Eastern Shore in February a season ago. He was the last Lancer with a five-hit day.
 
Harris had a career best four base hits, including his first collegiate triple.
 
Longwood stole three bases on the day. Ethan Barnes stole his team-leading sixth of the season.
 
UP NEXT:
 
Longwood heads out to Gardner-Webb this weekend to open up Big South play. The three-game series begins on Friday night at 6 p.m., with games two and three taking place on Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m. and 1 p.m. respectively. All three games will be aired on ESPN+.
 
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