Leading Off
•Longwood enters the week set for its first week with a pair of midweek schools, against VMI Tuesday and George Mason Wednesday. Longwood was scheduled to play a pair of midweek games in March at N.C. Central and Duke, but the N.C. Central game was canceled due to rain.
•The Lancers enter the game with senior captain
Sammy Miller on a roll. Hitting below .050 seven games into the year, Miller leads the team with a .284 average.
•The midweek games are the second and third games against in-state competition for the Lancers. Longwood played at (RV) Virginia last Tuesday. The Lancers were also scheduled to host Norfolk State the week prior, but the midweek game was canceled due to wet weather and cold temperatures.
•The Lancers begin a five-game homestand Tuesday and will play every game in April in the state of Virginia.
Last Time Out
•Longwood dropped the weekend set at Charleston Southern, 2-1. The Lancers fell 9-5 in the first game as CSU scored four unearned runs. Longwood bounced back with a 7-5 win on the power of a four-hit game by
Sammy Miller and the first home run by
Jawan McAllister. CSU took the finale, 6-0.
By The Numbers
•Michael Catlin, who has gone between the bullpen and starting rotation throughout his career, made his mark as a starting pitcher to begin 2018.
•Catlin picked up his first quality start with 6.0 innings of one-run ball in his second win of the season March 10 against Iona, the second game of a doubleheader.
Catlin moved back to the bullpen during the series against High Point, tossing 2.1 scoreless innings for the save in the first game of the set.
•Catlin got his second save with 2.2 innings of one-hit, scoreless ball and four K's at Charleston Southern March 30.
•Redshirt-junior Jawan McAllister belted a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning of the middle game of the series at Charleston Southern. Trailing 5-4 and with Ryan Shull in scoring position after reaching on a two-out error and stealing second base, McAllister turned around an offering that proved to be the game-winning two-run homer.
•Sammy Miller picked up his first triple of the season in a 4-for-5 game in Longwood's win at Charleston Southern on March 30.
•Steven Farkas, who struck out a career-high 12 batters in 6.0 scoreless innings March 9 against Iona, is second in the Big South with 50 strikeouts.
•Eric Harp picked up the Big South Relief Pitcher of the Week award on March 5, becoming the ninth Lancer to win a weekly award.
Big South Player of the Week
Date Player
3/10/14 Alex Owens
4/27/15 Kyri Washington
Big South Pitcher of the Week
Date Player
3/10/14 Aaron Myers
3/7/16 Cody Boydstun
3/20/17 Cody Wager
4/17/17 Cody Wager
Big South Relief Pitcher of the Week
Date Player
3/5/18 Eric Harp
Big South Freshman of the Week
Date Player
4/24/17 Antwaun Tucker
5/15/17 Antwaun Tucker
Scouting VMI
•As they did in 2017, Longwood and VMI are set to meet for consecutive weeks. VMI swept Longwood in the two midweek games in 2017.
•VMI is led in hitting by Matt Pita, who is hitting .387 with a team-high seven home runs with a team-best 26 RBI, and 14 doubles, which is tied for fourth in the nation. Pita is in the top five in the SoCon in hits, average, runs, slugging, doubles, homers, and total bases.
•VMI has four .300 hitters with Pita (.387), Peyton Maddox (.341), Matt Dunlevy (.329), and Will Malbon (.311). VMI is hitting .274 with 27 home runs as a team.
•VMI has some big wins on its resume, taking down #19 South Carolina in the season opener and #15 Virginia in the first midweek game.
Scouting George Mason
•Longwood hosted George Mason in 2017, leading the game 5-2, before George Mason scored one in the eighth and three in the ninth to take the midweek matchup, 6-5.
•George Mason has four players hitting above .300 with Logan Driscoll (.431), Brady Acker (.343), Tyler Nelin (.304), and Michael Smith (.302).
Driscoll leads the team with eight doubles and 24 RBI.
•The top pitcher on staff is Zach Mort, who has a 3-1 record in seven starts with a 1.61 ERA and has 63 strikeouts in 50.1 innings with a batting average against of .189.
•Ryan Ricci is the go-to relief pitcher with 12 relief outings, the most among George Mason pitchers, with a 1.93 ERA and has 13 punchouts in 18.2 innings of work.
#GoWood
