The First Pitch:
• Longwood wraps up an eight-game road trip with a matinee matchup in Richmond on Tuesday, and the team opens up a four-game homestand on Wednesday by hosting George Mason.
• Tuesday, the Lancers will wrap up a stretch that sees them play 15 of 19 on the road.
• Longwood and Richmond met earlier this season in Farmville, with Longwood winning 7-5 after scoring three runs in the final three innings.
• The Lancers will also play a home and home midweek series with George Mason. The Lancers make the return trip to Fairfax on Tuesday, April 11.
• Longwood has the best defense by fielding percentage in the Big South (.977), which is also 49th in the nation.
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Eliot Dix leads the team with a .412 batting average, which ranks 46th in the nation. He leads the Big South with 40 hits, which is 18th nationally.
Last Series Notes:
• Longwood dropped the first two games at UNC Asheville before rallying to take game three 11-5.
• The Lancers scored in seven of the nine innings in the final game in the series, and
Andrew Potojecki excelled for seven innings on the mound.
• Potojecki matched a career high with 7.0 innings for a third straight start. He gave up one run on eight hits, but he did not issue a walk and struck out five.
• Meanwhile, the Lancer offense got going early and never stopped.
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Eliot Dix opened the scoring with an RBI base hit in the first inning, and the Lancers led 3-0 after three innings.
Keondre Shelton had a big day and scored three runs.
• Longwood had seven players record a hit, with Shelton and Dix both posting three base hits apiece.
Drew Camp added a pair of base hits as well.
Around The Bases:
• Longwood was picked to finish sixth in the Big South Preseason Poll after finishing eighth in the final standings in 2022.
• Defensively, Longwood's .977 fielding percentage leads the Big South. The team has only committed three errors in its past eight games.
• The Lancer offense is second in the Big South in doubles with 47.
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Eliot Dix leads Longwood with 10 doubles, which is tied for second in the Big South and is tied for 29th in the nation.
• Dix leads the conference in hits with 40 which ranks 18th in the nation. He sports a .412 batting average, which is third in the Big South and is 46th in the nation.
• Longwood is fourth in the Big South with 35 stolen bases, and the Lancers are 35-43 when attempting to steal.
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Ethan Barnes leads the team with seven stolen bases, and he is 7-7 on the season.
• Thirteen different players have stolen a base for Longwood, and 10 players have stolen at least two.
• Longwood is tied for third in the Big South with six triples.
Quincy Sippio has hit two this season to lead the team.
• The Lancer offense is seventh in the Big South in home runs with 20 on the season.
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Gregory Ryan, Jr. leads Longwood with seven home runs, which is tied for sixth in the Big South.
• Nine different players have homered for the Lancers: Ryan, Nelson, Dix,
Hayden Harris,
Dylan Wilkinson,
Luis DeLeon,
Drew Camp,
Drayven Kowalski and
Tanner Thomas.
• On the mound, Longwood has a pair of pitchers inside the top 10 in ERA in the Big South.
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Andrew Potojecki leads the Big South with a 1.77 ERA. The righthander has not surrendered more than two earned runs in a single outing this season.
• Potojecki does not give out walks. He is seventh in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio: 10.67. Potojecki has not issued a walk in his past two outings, which spans 14.0 innings.
• Against Iona on March 11, Potojecki set a career best with eight strikeouts in 7.0 innings. He gave up two unearned runs on six hits and a walk to earn his first win of the 2023 campaign.
• Potojecki leads the team with 32 strikeouts. He is tied for 10th in the Big South in K's and is tied for the league lead in strikeouts looking with 15.
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Logan Berrier is ninth in the Big South with a 4.20 ERA, and he is tied for fifth in strikeouts looking with 10 in his 30 innings of work.
• Berrier has given up the third fewest runs among qualifying pitchers this season (14) in the Big South.
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Andrew Melnyk has served as a strikeout artist out of the bullpen. The lefty is averaging nearly two strikeouts per inning with 19 K's in 10.1 innings, and he and sports a 3.48 ERA.
• The Virginia Beach native earned a relief win after not surrendering a run in 2.0 innings to open the three-game series against Iona. He struck out four without giving up a run and only allowed one hit and one walk.
• In the series opener against Delaware State, he entered with Longwood holding a 5-4 lead. After issuing a leadoff walk, Melnyk proceeded to strike out six straight to end the game and earn the save.
• Guillermo Garcia put together a strong outing on Wednesday against Richmond. He earned his second save of the season by retiring the side in order to preserve a 7-5 win.
• Garcia followed it up with 4.0 shutout innings at Gardner-Webb. He struck out four in the outing and sports a 2.92 ERA on the season.
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Kevin Warunek was strong in his first two appearances out of the bullpen for Longwood this season. The lefthander tossed two scoreless innings while striking out two.
#GoWood #HorsePower
