CHARLESTON, S.C. – Senior right-hander Travis Burnette spun his fourth quality start of the season as Longwood won a pitchers' duel at Charleston Southern, 4-1, in game one of three Saturday afternoon at CSU Ballpark.
 
Longwood (16-11, 4-3 Big South) won its fifth consecutive opening game in a weekend series, including all three game ones in Big South play. The Lancers used Burnette's strong start and a four-run top of the sixth to outlast Charleston Southern (11-15, 1-3 Big South).
 
"It's huge for us to take the first game," Longwood head coach Ryan Mau said after the Lancers secured their third consecutive victory. "It takes a little bit of the pressure off and winning the first gives you a really good opportunity to win the series."
 
Burnette (4-1) earned the win picked up his second consecutive quality start of the season by holding Charleston Southern to one run in 6.2 innings of work on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks in the outing.
 
"I thought [Burnette] does what he always does, which is competing," Mau said. "His stuff was just OK today, I think he'd be the first to tell you that, but what he lacked in stuff he made up in competitive drive. He gave us a solid start today."
 
The Buccaneers got a strong outing from starter Evan Raynor (4-2), who was also quality, but took the loss after allowing four unearned runs in the sixth inning. Raynor struck out eight batters and allowed the four runs on five hits and one walk in 6.2 innings. Ryan Jones nailed down the save for Longwood by picking up the final seven outs, his third save of the season.
 
At the plate it was another big day for the middle of the order. Alex Lewis led the way with three hits in a 3-for-4 day, upping his batting average to a team best .367 and extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a single to start the second inning.
 
Michael Osinski also had a multi-hit game for the Lancers with a 2-for-4 game at the plate. He and Connar Bastaich each finished the game with a hit, an RBI, and a run scored. Osinski, Lewis, and Bastaich, the three, four, and five hitters, combined to go 6-for-12 with two RBI and three runs scored.
 
"That's what the middle of our lineup needs to do and that's why they're there," Mau said. "They continue to put great swings on the baseball and produce timely hitting."
 
The four-run sixth inning for Longwood almost didn't happen. With Longwood trailing 1-0, Sammy Miller started the rally by reaching on an error by Buccaneer third baseman Nate Blanchard with one out. Miller stole second base, his 12th swipe of the season, to get into scoring position with one out.
 
With two outs Miller was 90 feet away from tying the game. Osinski turned an 0-2 pitch into a single to left, tying the game at one. Lewis followed up with a single to center and then Bastaich gave Longwood a 2-1 lead with a single through the left side, plating Osinski.
 
Drew Kitson landed the knockout blow in the inning with a two-run double to left, giving Longwood the 4-1 lead. The two-RBI game for Kitson was his second multi-RBI game of the season.
 
"[Charleston Southern] has a good arm in Raynor and it took us a while to adjust to him," Mau said. "I'm proud of the effort we gave offensively. We did a great job making an in-game adjustment to how he was pitching us and we were able to break through there for a big inning."
 
The Lancers battled in several big spots in the game. In the home half of the fifth Charleston Southern had runners on the corners with no outs after a pair of singles started the inning. The Buccaneers broke the scoreless tie when second baseman Kevin Hickney hit a grounder to short and Osinski flipped to a covering C.J. Roth at second base, allowing the runner from third to score on the fielder's choice.
 
In the next at-bat, the third single in the inning put runners on the corners with one out for the Buccaneers. The following batter hit a chopper to third, but Brandon Harvell scooped the ground ball and fired to the plate to cut down the potential second run of the game for Charleston Southern. Burnette got the next man to pop up to Bastaich at first base to end the inning.
 
"I thought [Burnette] showed unbelievable composure to get out of that spot," Mau said. "As a team we did a great job minimizing the possible damage in that inning."
 
After holding Charleston Southern to just one run in the home half of the fifth, Longwood put together the four-run top of the sixth inning.
 
In the home half of the seventh the Lancers were again in a tough spot in the field. Burnette allowed a pair of one-out singles and left the game after getting the second out of the inning. Jones stepped into the game and walked a batter to fill the bases, but got a strikeout to end the threat and take the Lancers the rest of the way on the mound.
 
"[Jones] is throwing the ball great and that was a crucial out to get for us," Mau said. "Getting out of the jam is what ultimately led to the win for us."
 
The Lancers put forth a strong defensive performance in the win with no errors committed and improved to 5-1 in games the defense plays without an error.
 
"Today we gave a great defensive effort," Mau said. "It was an overall strong game defensively and I'm really proud of the way the guys played in the field today."
 
Osinski and Harvell made significant contributions in the field for Longwood. The junior third baseman, Harvell, threw out a runner at the plate and Osinski, the sophomore shortstop, finished with a game-high six assists.
 
Longwood picked up its second road victory of the season with the win and improved to 5-1 in the first game of weekend series on the season.
 
The Lancers play game two of three Sunday afternoon. Steven Farkas (1-1) gets the start for the Lancers opposite of fellow southpaw Daniel Johnson (2-2). Games two and three will be streamed on the Big South network. First pitch Sunday is set for 2 p.m. at CSU Ballpark.
 
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