TYSONS, Va. – Longwood baseball needed solid to open the DMV Classic on Friday night, and the Lancers (4-9) got it.
 
Guillermo Garcia, Jr. was sharp on the mound, the offense piled up 10 hits for a third straight game, and the defense did not commit an error. It added up to a 6-4 win over Towson.
 
James Nelson remained incandescently hot at the plate, going 3-4 for his eighth straight multi-hit game. Bentley Yeatts added three hits of his own as well.
 
SCORE:
               R             H            E
TOW      4             7             0
LWU      6             10           0
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
The game started as a low-scoring affair, with both starting pitchers throwing well. Guillermo Garcia, Jr. was in command early for Longwood and put together his best start of the season.
 
The righthander went 6.2 innings and limited Towson (3-9) to three runs on six hits and a walk, and he struck out five to earn the win and improve to 2-2 this saeson. Wyatt Bunch, meanwhile, came on and preserved it with 2.1 innings to close the game and pick up the save.
 
Meanwhile, Towson starter Max Simpson was solid early, but Longwood's offense got going in the middle innings to tag him with the loss.
 
The Lancers took the lead in the second on an RBI single by the reigning Big South Freshman of the Week, Mac Tufts, that followed a Casey Gibbs double.
 
Towson answered with a run apiece in the third and fourth from , but Garcia settled things down each time and limited the damage. The Lancers responded in the fifth to take the lead.
 
Bentley Yeatts swatted a leadoff homer in the bottom of the fifth, his first collegiate home run, to tie the game at two. James Nelson poked an RBI single through the right side, and solid baserunning added one more for a 4-2 lead.
 
Towson cut the lead to 4-3 in the seventh, but the Lancers answered and stretched it back out. Nelson swatted his third base hit of the day, an RBI double to center, and Mikey Urbaniak added an RBI single for a 6-3 lead. The Tigers added one in the eighth, but Bunch kept it there.

WHAT THEY SAID:

"This team is really starting to move in the right direction," said Longwood Head Coach Ray Noe. "We are continuing to show growth each game, and now we are starting to make some of those fifty-fifty plays that change the course of the game."

"Guillermo was unbelievable tonight," Noe said of his righthander. "I thought he had a real presence out there and made some big pitches when we needed them the most."

"James continues to be on the barrel, and he's been so much fun to watch," Noe added about the lefty. "He is a real threat in our lineup and, again, it goes back to his day-to-day work that he puts in. He is relentless in his work and comes to the park every day ready to get better."
 
UP NEXT:
 
Longwood remains in Tysons for game two of the DMV Classic tomorrow. The Lancers play George Mason at 4 p.m.
 
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