The First Pitch:
• Longwood heads to VMI on Tuesday for the conclusion of a home-and-home midweek series this season.
• The game in Lexington opens up a stretch of four straight on the road for the Lancers.
• Through the next four weeks, the Lancers will play on the road or at home in four game segments. This weekend, the team travels to Presbyterian before coming home to host James Madison and then High Point. The pattern continues for two weeks thereafter.
• Longwood takes on a VMI team that leads the nation in walks, on-base percentage, stolen bases and scoring.
• The matchup between the two teams features two teams in the top 10 nationally in stolen bases, with Longwood ranking seventh in steals.
Previous Series
• Longwood was swept by Gardner-Webb in a three-game series over the weekend.
• The Lancers were nipped 7-5 in the opener in a game that was incredibly narrow throughout the contest. The Lancers loaded the bases in the ninth with two outs to bring the tying run to second base, but a strikeout ended the frame.
• In the second game of the series, Gardner-Webb used three home runs to pull away from the Lancers in a 12-5 win. Again, Longwood plated two runs in the ninth.
• In the series finale, Gardner-Webb drew 12 walks and added 13 hits to stake out an early lead, and Longwood's rally came up short in the late innings.
Around The Bases:
• Longwood opens a four-game road swing with their trip to VMI, and they alternate home and road in four-game blocks through the next four weeks.
• The pattern breaks due to finals week, when the Lancers have a bye weekend.
• The Lancers rank first in the Big South in stolen bases and third in triples.
• The team's 76 steals are seventh nationally.
• Tre Keels leads the way with 24 stolen bases, and he is a perfect 24-24 on steal attempts.
• His 24 steals are fifth in the nation.
• Meanwhile, the Lancers have eight triples as a team, and six different players have hit a triple this season. The team is one behind the league leaders in Radford and Winthrop.
•
Myles Webb and
Mikey Urbaniak each have two triples to lead the team.
•
James Nelson, meanwhile, has 10 doubles to lead Longwood. He has 10 of Longwood's 51 doubles as a team, and he is second in the Big South in doubles.
• Nelson is also eighth in the Big South with 31 RBI.
• This season, Nelson is averaging better than one RBI per game, and he has had nine multi-RBI games this season. No one else on the team has had more than six multi-RBI games this year.
• Longwood ranks fourth in walks drawn with 135, and both
Jae'dan Carter and
Mikey Urbaniak lead the way for the team.
• Carter is third in the league with 26 drawn walks, and Urbaniak is right behind him in fourth with 22.
• Carter also ranks 32nd nationally in walks drawn.
• Urbaniak, meanwhile, ranks sixth in the Big South in on-base percentage at .505.
• Urbaniak has reached base safely in 14 straight contests, and Carter has done so in 11 straight.
SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Record vs. VMI 13-19
Under Coach Noe 0-1
Current Streak L 2
First Meeting L 6-1 in 1979
Last Meeting L 9-7 on 3/18/2025
• VMI won the first meeting between the two teams 9-7 in Farmville after a run in the seventh and a run in the eighth broke a 7-7 tie.
• VMI jumped out to a 7-2 lead through three-and-a-half inning, but Longwood tied the game in the bottom half of the fourth.
• Tre Keels swatted a grand slam after
Bentley Yeatts drew a bases loaded walk for a five-run inning. It was Longwood's first grand slam of the season.
• In the game in Farmville,
Mikey Urbaniak went 2-3 and
Casey Gibbs also went 2-3. Both players drew two walks as well.
STATS COMPARISON
LWU VMI
2025 Record 8-20 17-17
Conference 3-3 3-3
Batting Average .249 .321
Opp. Batting Average .330 .291
Hits 215 281
Hits allowed 326 269
Runs 173 301
Opposing runs 286 204
Runs per game 6.2 10.8
Doubles 51 53
Opposing doubles 62 48
Triples 8 8
Opposing triples 8 5
Home Runs 14 38
Opposing home runs 38 36
RBI 147 268
OBP .380 .478
SLG .376 .530
SB-ATT 76-89 148-174
Opposing SB-ATT 42-54 58-66
Walks drawn 135 221
Walks Allowed 149 116
Strikeouts 262 207
Opposing Strikeouts 195 238
Earned run average 8.86 6.82
Innings pitched 232.2 228.1
Earned runs allowed 229 173
FLD% .953 .961
Errors 46 37
#GoWood #HorsePower
