April 8, 2005

BOX SCORE

LEXINGTON, Va. -- Longwood University dropped an 11-4 baseball decision at VMI Friday in Lexington.  The Lancers dropped to 11-20 this season with the road loss, while the Keydets improved to 15-17.  Longwood and VMI will play again Saturday, April 9, in Lexington beginning at 3 p.m. in the second game of the three-game weekend series.

At VMI of the Big South Conference, Longwood jumped ahead early with runs in the first and second innings to lead 2-0 before the Keydets scored four runs in the third inning and never looked back.  The hosts added six runs in the fifth inning with a final run in the eighth inning.  The Lancers added runs in the eighth and ninth innings for the final margin.

Longwood did out-hit VMI 13-12 during the contest, led by senior Chris Balus/Newport News (Denbigh) (2-4), sophomores Tyler Ames/Exmore (Northampton) (2-4, 2 RBI) and Charlie Yarbrough/Richmond (Mills Godwin) (2-5, RBI), along with freshman Joe Bott/Elyria, Ohio (Elyria Catholic) (2-4) with two hits each.  Ames had a pair of RBI with a run-scoring single in the second and a sacrifice fly in the ninth.  Yarbrough contributed an RBI single in the first, while junior Danny McCraw/ Pamplin (Randolph-Henry) (1-1, RBI) added a pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth inning.
    
Sophomore Alan Moore/Richmond (Monacan) (3-4) took the pitching loss with the first 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits and five earned runs.
    
VMI was led by Robert Crumpler (3-4, 4 RBI) who had three hits and and four RBI, while Thane Smith (3-4, 2 RBI) also had three hits with two RBI.  Jimmy Thoms (4-3) earned the mound win with a complete-game effort of 9.0 innings, allowing the 13 hits and four earned runs with five strikeouts.