CHARLESTON, S.C. –Longwood baseball refused to go down easily, but a late rally came up just short on Thursday night at Charleston Southern.
 
The Lancers (10-28, 4-9 Big South) scored six unanswered runs but fell 9-8 to CSU (20-14, 6-7 Big South).
 
Myles Webb, Jayson Nash and Carter Newman led the charge for the Lancer offense, as all three hit home runs in the game. Six Lancers scored a run, and five players drove a run home.
 
However, Chandler Tuupo had three of CSU's six hits, and Kaden Smith drove in three runs for an early lead.
 
SCORING:
               R             H            E
LWU      8             9             1
CSU       9             6             2
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
Longwood jumped out to an early lead in the first inning after capitalizing on a Charleston Southern mistake.
 
However, Smith tied it with a solo home run to left, and CSU's offense took off. The Bucs scored all nine of their runs in the first three innings.
 
Carter Newman hit a solo home run to left for Longwood in the second, but the Lancers still entered the middle of the game down 9-2.
 
Much like they did when they rallied to take down William & Mary on Tuesday, the Lancer offense went to work in the fifth. An error scored two runs, and a sacrifice fly from Webb, who had two RBI on the day, cut the lead to 9-5.
 
In the sixth, Nash blasted his first collegiate home run to left field, a two-run shot following a Newman single, to trim the lead to 9-7. Webb swatted his solo home run a few batters later to make it 9-8.

The Lancer bullpen did its job, putting up six straight zeros to close out the game behind Wyatt Bunch, Ethan Plesser and Kyle Miller.
 
Longwood put the tying run on base in both the seventh and ninth, but CSU's bullpen evaded the damage.
 
Charleston Southern starter Ryan Cole (1-1) picked up the win after going five innings. He gave up five runs, only two earned, on five hits and two walks. The rest of the bullpen did not issue a free pass in the final four innings. Kyle Lewis picked up his second save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning.
 
Isaiah Brewington (0-2) took the loss for Longwood. He gave up five runs, three earned, on two hits and three walks.

WHAT THEY SAID:

"Overall, I thought tonight was a hard fought game," said Longwood Head Coach Ray Noe. "We let them have too many second-chance opportunities there in teh first inning which led to runs, but we put some good swings on balls to get us right back in the hunt. Bunch, Plesser and Miller gave us great innings to allow us to cut it to one, and then we see we are just one swing away from tying it up there in the ninth. We're excited to get back at it tomorrow."
 
UP NEXT:
 
Longwood plays the second game of the series on Friday night at 6 p.m. The game will air on ESPN+.
 
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