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LEXINGTON, S.C. – Senior second baseman C.J. Roth recorded a career-high four hits and shortstop Michael Osinski had a career-high tying four RBI as No. 3 Longwood eliminated the No. 2 seed, High Point, with an 18-13 win in a slugfest Thursday at Lexington County Baseball Stadium to advance to the 2016 Big South Championship Semifinals.

Longwood (32-26) will face No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina in a quick turnaround with the first pitch scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday. The Lancers need a win to force a second semifinal game, which would also be against the Chanticleers, to earn a berth into the winner-take-all championship game Saturday.

The 18 runs by the Lancers set a new program record for runs scored in any Big South Championship contest, surpassing the previous high of 11. Longwood's previous high came in an 11-3 win over High Point in an elimination game played in the 2013 Big South Tournament. The 31 runs between the two teams also set a record for runs in a Big South Championship game.

"That was nuts," Longwood head coach Ryan Mau said after the win. "I'm really proud of the effort. It took every single guy in that dugout to get it done. There was tons of energy, obviously the offensive output was tremendous, and we needed every single run today. It was one of those games where no one wanted to go home and I'm just proud of our guys and the way they prevailed."

In addition to breaking the tournament record for combined runs in a game, Longwood had the most hits in a game this season with 24 on the day, and the 18 runs marked the most in a game this season. Roth, Osinski, and Lewis combined for 16 hits, as each tied for a team-high four hits.

Every Lancer picked up a hit in the victory, the final batter to record a hit for Longwood being Brandon Harvell, who picked up a two-run single in the seventh inning to get into the hit column. Osinski with four hits and four RBI, Lewis with four hits, Roth with four hits, Konvicka with four RBI, and Sammy Miller with four RBI all had their career highs in the game.

"We're feeling pretty good about the way we're swinging the bats right now and the guys in the lineup are all feeding off of each other," Mau said. "When you get the top of the lineup going it all seems to fall into place and all the guys put good swings on the ball today."

As a team, Longwood hit .500 Thursday, posting a 24-for-48 effort. The top six batters in the lineup all had at least three hits and combined to go 21-for-33 (.636) with 14 RBI, 15 runs scored, five doubles, and two triples.

Neither starting pitcher made it out of the second inning, each being lifted after lasting just 1.1 innings. Ryan Jones (4-2) picked up the win after tossing 4.1 innings out of the bullpen and tossed a team-high 82 pitches. Scot Hoffman (5-5) took the loss after allowing seven runs, all earned, on seven hits in the start for High Point (32-24). Tyler Wirsu tossed the final 2.1 innings for Longwood and picked up his first save of the year and was one of just two of the 12 pitchers used by the two teams to post a scoreless outing.

"I'd appreciate it if we stay out of games like this, they age me pretty quickly," Mau said. "We're all exhausted, that was a long one. [Jones] was instrumental in the game for us. It was that spot in the game when we were up big, when we were swinging the bat well, but we couldn't put up zeros. We just tried to give High Point a different look and Jones provided that different look. He did an outstanding job of settling things down after that rough start for us."

In addition to the oddity of the two starting pitchers combining to collect eight outs and 12 pitchers used between the teams, the offenses combined for 47 hits in the game that lasted four hours and 27 minutes, the second longest game of the season for the Lancers.

"I can't tell you the last time I played in a game with 40-something hits," Roth said. "The job's not done. We still have to come out and compete tomorrow and be ready to go, but I'm looking forward to a little rest after that long game."

The Lancers bombarded the Panthers with six runs in the second inning, as they reeled off five straight hits, including a Konvicka triple and a pair of doubles by Lewis and Osinski. Lewis dropped the ball into left field to bring home Roth from third, before Osinski blasted a ball to right-center to score Lewis and Bastaich. Konvicka then belted a high flying ball to deep center field that allowed Osinski to score.

Longwood kept its foot on the pedal, scoring multiple runs in four consecutive innings, capped off by a two-run eighth inning that extended the lead to 18-13. Of the 18 trips to the plate for the two teams, there were only seven scoreless frames and the Lancers had six multi-run innings, continuing to pound out hits while leading wire-to-wire.

"We still have to stick with our approach no matter what the score is and no matter who the opponent is," Roth, Longwood's senior co-captain, said. "If you stick with your approach day-in and day-out, good things happen like that. I think if we would have gotten away from our approach after putting a couple of big spots up, then we would have been in a completely different ballgame today. I'm proud of our guys for staying in the ballgame and sticking with the approach."

High Point battled offensively all day and made the game the closest it was in the later innings with a five-run seventh inning to cut the Lancer lead to three runs on a two-RBI single to left field by Zach Vandergrift. That hit came after High Point's Tim Mansfield hit a two-run triple to center field earlier in the inning and a sacrifice fly by Chris Clare that also plated a run. Mansfield finished the game with a game-high five hits and was 5-for-6 with four RBI and three runs scored, one of four players in the game with four RBI and one of 13 players with multiple hits. After the Lancers' six-run second inning, Longwood's lead was never smaller than three the rest of the way.

"I'm proud of the guys and we stay locked in the entire time," Mau said. "It was a high-scoring affair and I'm just happy to be on the right side of things today."

The semifinal trip in the tournament is the second for Longwood, the first coming in the 2013 Big South Championship, in which the Lancers finished 2-2 after being eliminated by No. 1 seed Campbell. The Lancers and Coastal Carolina are set to meet for a fourth time in 2016 when the teams meet Friday morning. Longwood enters the game hot offensively with 48 hits in the three games at the Big South Championship.

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