FARMVILLE, Va. – Junior Travis Burnette turned in a career day, dealing a spectacular 8.0 innings of shutout baseball while scattering just five hits to lead Longwood to a series victory over Charleston Southern in a thrilling 1-0 finale Sunday afternoon at Buddy Bolding Stadium.

For the third-consecutive day, it was the pitchers who reigned in the rubber match as Burnette dueled with Buccaneer starter Kyle McDorman. Both were electric in a pivotal Sunday matchup early in the Big South season, but it was the Burnette who came out on top in another nip-and-tuck affair between Longwood and Charleston Southern.

The 6-0, 173-pound right-hander carried the shutout into the ninth inning for a career-long outing, besting his 7.1 shutout innings earlier this season versus Army. Burnette's record-day was not limited to the length of his start as the hurler fanned a career-high six batters in the dominant performance.

"I felt like I had all my pitches," said Burnette. "Coach Mau and Coach Rein have put a ton of work in with me the last couple weeks trying to get me back to where I should be and I think we were able to put everything together today. We put a lot of work in and I'm glad everything finally paid off."

With Burnette shutting down Charleston Southern at the plate, it didn't take much offensively for the Lancers to win the nail-biting conclusion to a fantastic Big South series. Longwood tallied just once with the run coming in the fourth inning, a frame that contained two of the Lancers' five hits on the day. It was the freshman Michael Osinski who would deliver the only extra-base hit of the game, a two-out double into the left field corner which plated Kyri Washington all the way from first.

Burnette held the one-run lead all the way into the ninth inning before giving way to Luke Simpson out of the bullpen. With the tying run on first, the sophomore induced a ground out and fly out to record the first two outs of the inning with the runner advancing to second. Facing a pinch-hitter with two away, Simpson caught Sam Knight looking at a 3-2 pitch to preserve the victory and record his second save of the season.      

"It was a little tense," said head coach Ryan Mau of the Lancers' Sunday victory. "That's a huge, huge series win for us against a team that we think we were pretty evenly matched with over the weekend. For us to take that one at home and get our first conference series under our belt, it was a necessity after the start we had at Campbell. We needed this one in a big way and the guys delivered."

It was immediately apparent the Lancers and Buccaneers were locked in another pitchers' duel as McDorman and Burnette came out firing in the first. Both starters navigated comfortable three-up, three-down innings to settle into the game and establish a premium on runs.

For Charleston Southern (11-11, 3-3), McDorman dazzled in his first start of the season as the senior matched Burnette pitch-for-pitch in his 6.1 innings of three-hit, one-run ball. The right-handed hurler used a sharp slider and a strong cutter to keep Longwood at bay all day long. McDorman punched out five Lancers while walking just two before leaving the game in the seventh with just the single run against his name.

Thankfully for Longwood (10-12, 2-4), Burnette was even better, tearing off a career-day. The junior's career-high in innings pitched came as a result of two major factors: a career-best six strikeouts and an impressive display of the leather by the Lancer defenders.

When Burnette did run into trouble, he always had the pitch and the defense to get out of the jam. In the top of the third, Charleston Southern loaded the bases on a hit, an error and a walk before Burnette got cleanup-hitter Chase Shelton to fly out to center field.

An inning later, the Bucs threatened again with the bases loaded and only one out. Burnette induced a ground ball which the Lancers rolled up defensively as Osinski and C.J. Roth combined to double up the speedy Ryan Maksim and keep Charleston Southern off the board. The huge double-play was a momentum changer and one of many plays Burnette was appreciative of Sunday afternoon.

"The defense did an amazing job today," said Burnette. "They made every play that we needed to make when we needed it. I'm proud of those guys for coming out and making plays for us at those big times."

The defense would step up once more in the top half of the seventh as the Lancers turned a 5-4-3 double play to once again roll-up Maksim to end the inning. Between the fielders flashing the glove and Burnette dealing on the mound, the Lancers had an answer for every threat the Buccaneers made.

Burnette would quell one final storm in the eighth as Brandon Burris led off with a single and advanced to third on a stolen base and ground out. With the tying run 90-feet away, a tiring starter made yet another clutch pitch, popping the pinch-hitter Brian Dye up to shallow left field and leaving Burris stranded.

A walk to lead off the ninth ended Burnette's day, but the junior provided Longwood its third quality start in as many days and stood tall in a pivotal series finale.

"Travis was outstanding today," said Mau. "He did a great job of commanding the fastball, had his changeup sinking today and was able to throw some breakers over and just baffled them all day long. He just competed, he got us out of a jam in the third inning and stepped up and made some big-time pitches to really settle in nicely to give us a chance to pull that one out."

Pull it out the Lancers did, as the blue and white strung together two hits in the fourth frame to score the only run of the game. As Longwood has been prone to do this season, the Lancers did their damage with two outs as Kyri Washington legged out an infield single on a chopper to third before Michael Osinski delivered perhaps the biggest hit of his young career.

With a 3-1 count and Washington on first, the Lancers put the fleet-footed left fielder in motion. Osinski hooked a rocket down the left field line, which rolled all the way into the corner, allowing Washington to coast home for the game-winning run.

"The freshman really stepped up and delivered a huge hit for us in a crucial situation," said Mau of the rookie shortstop Osinski. "We were desperate to barrel some balls up and I'm proud of the way he stepped up in that role."

Outside of Osinski's heroic hit, the Lancers found the going tough at the plate for a second game in a row, coming up with just five hits on the day.

"We definitely have to go back to work this week," Mau said. "I thought we got away from some things this week and really struggled with some breaking ball and we have to go back and work on our approach and seeing the baseball better."

Scoring just the single run left the pressure on late and when Burnette was forced to cede the mound, the Lancers turned to Luke Simpson out of the pen for the final three outs. Simpson worked a strong ninth, getting a shallow fly out and a weak ground ball before ending the game with an emphatic punchout of Knight.

"I've felt good about the way Luke's been throwing for us lately," said Mau. "He's starting to show the signs of being that back-end guy that I think he's capable of being. Big-time pressure situation and he delivered some outstanding fastballs and was running it up there pretty good as far as velocity is concerned. It was nice to see him succeed in that high-pressure situation."

With the win, Longwood has now won four of its past five games and will turn its attention to a midweek showdown with in-state foe VCU at The Diamond in Richmond. The Lancers will then return to Farmville to host Big South opponent High Point on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

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