The First Pitch:
• Longwood opens up the 2025 season with a three-game series against Wright State.
• It will also be the first three games for Longwood Head Coach
Ray Noe since taking the reins of the program this summer following five seasons as an assistant at VMI.
• The meeting is the first between Longwood and Wright State, and the two teams will play at UVA Wise due to inclement weather impacting Prince Edward County.
• Noe is the fifth head coach in team history after helping engineer a high-powered VMI offense.
• The Lancers have a roster of 17 returners to go with 23 newcomers after the team finished tied for fifth in the Big South a season ago.
Schedule Outlook:
• Longwood opens the season with eight straight at home and 12 of its first 13 at home, with the lone road game a matchup at Charlotte on February 25.
• The Lancers will also host a series against Penn State on the second weekend.
• The team's longest road swing runs five games, which it does one time (April 30 at Elon, May 2-4 at USC Upstate, May 13 at UNC Greensboro).
• Longwood opens Big South play on March 21 at UNC Asheville, and the Lancers also travel to Presbyterian, Charleston Southern, and USC Upstate in conference.
• The Lancers host Gardner-Webb, High Point, Winthrop and Radford in Big South action.
Around The Bases:
• Longwood baseball opens the season as the home team for a fourth straight season, although it is the first time in that stretch the team will not play at Buddy Bolding Stadium on opening weekend due to the aftereffects of a winter storm.
• The Lancers last opened on the road in 2021 with a three-game series at The Citadel, where Longwood won two of three.
• Last year, Longwood swept its season-opening three-game series, taking down Siena three times.
• The Lancers this season return 17 players while bringing in 23 newcomers, although the team only returns 22 percent of its at bats from a season ago (365 out of 1,660)
• Among returning position players,
Logan Janney (.258 batting average) had the most at bats a season ago as a true freshman and hit a pair of home runs.
•
Casey Gibbs also made 16 starts to go with 32 appearances in his first season after transferring from VCU, hitting .250.
•
James Nelson also returns for his fourth season, and he holds a .294 career batting average with eight home runs. He batted .242 last season with two homers.
• On the mound, the Lancers return seven pitchers who combined to throw 99 innings a season ago. That total represents 23 percent of the team's innings.
• Guillermo Garcia, who is projected to start the second game of the series, went 1-3 while making 17 appearances with seven starts. He had a 7.36 ERA after posting a 3.79 ERA in his first season the year prior.
•
Ried Dittner was one of the top relief options a season ago, striking out 32 in 21 innings of work. He made 18 appearances with one start and had a 6.00 ERA.
STATS COMPARISON (2024)
LWU WSU
2024 Record 23-29 32-24
Conference 10-14 20-10
Batting Average .268 .312
Opp. Batting Average .292 .326
Runs 348 505
Runs per game 6.7 8.8
Doubles 101 122
Triples 10 13
Home Runs 30 112
RBI 301 473
OBP .396 .413
SLG .395 .557
SB-ATT 103-128 86-117
BB 263 297
K 318 441
ERA 7.13 8.20
IP 431.2 482.0
H 502 659
ER 342 439
BB 318 288
K 457 434
FLD% .972 .970
E 49 60
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