VESTAL, N.Y. – Longwood baseball opened up a three game series by splitting a doubleheader with Binghamton on Friday at the Bearcats Baseball Stadium. The Lancers (25-18) won the opener 7-3 before Binghamton (22-15) won the second game 10-8 despite a furious Longwood rally.

"I'm really happy with the day overall today," said Longwood Head Coach Ray Noe. "Our energy was absolutely electric through all 18 innings, and we showed a lot of poise and fight throughout the day."
 
Game 1: Longwood 7, Binghamton 3
 
A five-run fourth inning, coupled with three home runs total, powered Longwood in the series opener. Jae'dan Carter, Jon Howard and Ben Pulliam hit the ball out of the yard, and Tre Keels added a timely RBI double on offense. Jaxon Lloyd, meanwhile, did what he does best on the mound to set the Lancers up to take the opening game of the series.
 
While Binghamton struck first, scoring all three of its runs in the first inning off of Lloyd (5-2), the lefthander quickly settled things down. He proceeded to toss five scoreless frames to earn the win—his fifth of the season. Lloyd finished with six strikeouts against six hits and three walks, and he continued a streak that has seen him go at least six innings in every start this season.
 
Meanwhile, the Longwood offense took a bit to get warmed up, but once it did, it did damage in the fourth. Carter swatted his sixth home run of the season, a three-run job over the right field wall, to open the scoring for Longwood. Keels added his two-run double a few batters later to give Longwood a 5-3 lead.
 
Lloyd kept putting zeros on the scoreboard before giving way to Cal Travers, who put up back-to-back scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth. The freshman lefthander struck out a pair.
 
The offense added two runs in the ninth on back-to-back solo bombs from Howard and Pulliam. It was the first time this season that Longwood has hit back-to-back homers.
 
JR Fordham struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth after entering with a runner on first and no outs.

"Glad to finally get Lloyd another W under his belt," Noe said. "He's been nothing but spectacular all year. Travers and Fordham were dominant to close it out."
 
Conner Griffin (1-3) took the loss for Binghamton. He gave up five runs in 3.2 innings of work on five hits and three walks while striking out three.
 
Game Two: Binghamton 10, Longwood 8
 
In game two, Longwood rallied with seven runs in the final three innings, but Binghamton staved off the furious comeback in the ninth to even the series.
 
The Bearcats again scored first, this time staking themselves to a 5-0 lead.
 
Howard put Longwood on the board with a solo home run, his second straight game with a homer in the sixth. He leads the team with 11 on the season.
 
Binghamton stretched the lead to six in the bottom of the inning, but Longwood's offense answered in the seventh. Keels hit a two-run double to right field, and Carter cut the lead to 7-4 on a sacrifice fly one batter later.
 
While the Bearcats again bumped the lead to six, Longwood rallied in the ninth. Tyler Bruggeman sliced a double to left to plate one run, one of his three hits in the game. Howard drove home another with an RBI single with the bases loaded and two outs. Lucas Johnson added an RBI single, and Pulliam capped the scoring with a sac fly to center to cut it to 10-8.
 
However, Hayden Tarsia was able to close out the ninth one batter later to get his fourth save of the season for Binghamton. He struck out three in 2.1 innings of work. Jackson Mitchell (3-0) picked up the win with five shutout innings while striking out five and only giving up five hits.
 
Brady Hoover (3-4) took the loss for Longwood. He gave up five runs, four earned, on seven hits and two walks while striking out two in 4.1 innings.

"Offensively, I liked our approach all day," Noe added. "They [Binghamton] have some really good arms over there, and I thought we did a good job grinding out some ABs and doing damage on teh pitches we were looking to be dangerous on. Looking forward to getting a chance to close out the series on Sunday."
 
The two sides play the third and final game of the series on Sunday at noon. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
 
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