FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood baseball and Gardner-Webb tangled for nine innings in a nailbiter that came down to the final strike and final out on Friday night to open a three game series.
 
Ultimately, the Runnin' Bulldogs (12-15, 2-5 Big South) fended off a hard charge by the Lancers (8-18, 3-1 Big South) to win 7-5.
 
Matt Ilgenfritz played the role of hero for GWU with his first collegiate multi-homer game, going 2-4 with two homers. His second of the night broke a 3-3 tie and gave his team the lead for good in the sixth.
 
Nathan Lancianese had a big base hit for Longwood, and Myles Webb drove in a critical run as part of a ninth-inning rally, but the rally came up just short and left the tying run on second base.
 
SCORING:
               R             H            E
GWU     7             11           1
LWU      5             6             2
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
Gardner-Webb struck first with a bases-loaded walk in the first inning, but Joe Castrichini limited the damage to one run and wiggled out of the jam for Longwood.
 
That became the theme of the day both ways, with neither side scoring more than two runs in an inning as both pitching staffs made some critical pitches.
 
Longwood tied the game in the home half of the fourth. Mikey Urbaniak led off with a double and came home on a throwing error on Webb's sacrifice bunt one batter later.
 
However, GWU's John Pfeffer came on in relief and escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam without surrendering a run to keep the score tied at one apiece.
 
GWU then answered with two home runs sandwiched around an out. Dale Francis, who entered tied for seventh nationally with 11 homers, obliterated a solo home run to left, and Ilgenfritz swatted his first home run of the day, a solo shot, to left center two batters later.
 
Longwood again equalized in the sixth inning when Lancianese turned on a pitch with runners on second and third and two outs. His two-run double down the left field line made it 3-3.
 
But Ilgenfritz again answered in the top of the seventh with a two-run jack for a 5-3 lead. The Runnin' Bulldogs added two insurance runs on a two-out, two-run double by Nick Capozzo in the top of the ninth that wound up being the difference.
 
Longwood rallied in the bottom of the ninth, with Webb poking a single through the left side to trim the lead to 7-4. Two batters later, Mac Tufts was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and two outs to cut the lead to 7-5, but GWU's Dominic Guzman came on and struck out the final batter of the game to earn the save, his first of the season.
 
Pfeffer (2-2) picked up the win for GWU after tossing 3.0 innings. He gave up two runs, one earned, on two hits and a walk against four strikeouts.
 
Alek Elges (0-4) took the tough loss. He threw well for five innings for Longwood, giving up four runs, three earned, on seven hits without a walk, and he struck out six.

WHAT THEY SAID:
 
"I thought it was a really solid, quality Big South Conference game," said Longwood Head Coach Ray Noe. "The story of the game was execution. A few pitches here that we make better, and if we do a little bit better job offensively in some of those runners-in-scoring-position situations, I think we could be on a different side of the result. But kudos to Gardner-Webb. They did a great job putting three really good swings on baseballs for the homers, and that's what they do. It was a good game."
 
"I'm happy that it was somewhat clean, which was big," said Noe. "Joe Castrichini [the starter for Longwood] wasn't necessarily as sharp as we would like, but he grinded it out and ended up going three. Alek Elges gave us some length, and then Jake Chadwell was really good in the ninth. Capozzi put a really good swing on it and hit a double after we intentionally walked Ilgenfritz, who had had two homers, which ended up being the dagger if you will."
 
"I think this was good for our guys," said Noe about the lessons you can learn even in a loss. "We're excited. We've got two more games left in the series, and Gardner-Webb's going to be ready to roll. We've got G [Guillermo Garcia, Jr.] going tomorrow and Ried [Dittner] on Sunday, and we fell really good with those two guys."
 
"They [Gardner-Webb] brought in the potential Sunday starter [in the ninth], and he's got really good numbers and strikes out a lot of guys. I thought we had a really good plan against him," Noe added about Longwood's rally in the bottom of the ninth. "We were patient. I know Mikey [Urbaniak] wants that at bat back on the chase up [in the zone], but he's been great for us all year. Again, getting traffic and allowing the game to come to us, not trying to do too much. Bentley put a wonderful swing on the ball to lead the inning off."
 
"We showed a lot of fight today, and a lot of grit," Noe said. "I'll take that team every day man."
 
UP NEXT:
 
The two teams square off again for game two of the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. Longwood sends Guillermo Garcia, Jr. to the mound to face off with Gardner-Webb's Nick Vieira.
 
#GoWood #HorsePower