Leading Off
•Longwood enters the Big South Baseball Championship as the eight seed, earning a postseason berth for the fourth time in six years in the league.
•The Lancers are 5-7 in Big South tournament games, 3-5 under fourth-year head coach
Ryan Mau.
•As the eight seed Longwood has a 1-3 tournament record, dropping games to Radford and High Point in and winning an elimination game against Liberty in 2015. Longwood dropped game one of the 2018 championship to No. 1 Campbell by an 8-1 final.
Last Time Out
•Longwood fell to No. 1 Campbell in its opening game of the Big South Championship, but the Lancers were in a battle with the regular season champion.
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John Gregory tossed 2.0 scoreless innings in a spot start with only one error allowing a man to reach before a two hour and thirty-three minute weather delay interrupted his start. Gregory returned to the mound after the delay and faced four batters, allowing a double, pair of walks, and a sacrifice bunt to leave with the bases loaded. Gregory finished with 2.1 innings and one run allowed.
•Trailing 1-0 in the sixth inning,
Eric Crain hit a two-out game-tying solo home run to center, his second homer of the season.
•After Gregory's outing,
Tommy Green went 4.1 scoreless on the mound with a career-high six strikeouts, but left with a bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning and was charged with a pair of runs after leaving the ballgame.
By The Numbers (Entering The Championship)
•For his outing against UNC Asheville on April 14 Tyler Morgan was named Big South Pitcher of the Week April 16.
•Morgan tossed a complete game shutout, Longwood's first since Aaron Myers did it against Ohio University in 2014. Morgan struck out 13 batters and allowed just five base runners.
•Morgan's is one of just three shutouts and one of seven complete games in the Big South this year. Morgan has logged three quality starts.
•Longwood is on a home run kick as of late with 19 of its 21 home runs on the season coming in the last 30 games.
•Justin Mitchell won Saturday's game two at Liberty on a two-run homer in the ninth, sending the Lancers to an 8-6 victory.
•Longwood has posted 11 quality starts on the season with Cody Boydstun posting five in his first season as a starter.
•All three starting pitchers - Steven Farkas, Boydstun, and Michael Catlin - each picked up quality starts in the weekend series against Iona that began March 9. The three starting pitchers averaged 7.0 innings, one run, and seven strikeouts for the series.
•Farkas and Tyler Morgan each collected quality starts in shutout wins against UNC Asheville.
•Farkas struck out a school-record 14 batters in 7.0 scoreless innings on April 13.
•After Farkas' gem, Morgan struck out 13 batters in a complete game shutout for his first career quality start.
•Senior outfielder Sammy Miller is the team captain and Longwood's lead-off man. Miller reaches at a rate of .389 (35-for-90) when leading off a frame.
•Miller owns a team-best .282 average, is seventh in the Big South with 39 walks drawn, and fourth with 20 steals. Miller drew five walks April 4 against George Mason, tied for the program record for walks in a single game.
•Steven Farkas and Cody Boydstun join Winthrop's Zach Peek and Nate Pawelczyk as the only teammates each inside the top five in the Big South in innings pitched.
•Boydstun finished fourth with 77.0 innings and Farkas was fifth with 74.1 IP.
•Longwood enters the postseason atop the Big South with 87 swipes on the season, 13 more than the 2017 total.
•Sammy Miller is fourth in the Big South with 20 steals.
•Antwaun Tucker is sixth with 19 and Jawan McAllister is eighth with 18.
•Tucker stole four bases at Presbyterian on May 13, setting a new career high in steals.
•The Lancers are second in the Big South with 455 as a team in 2018.
•Longwood led the Big South with 511 punchouts in 2017, breaking the previous school D-I record of 440.
•Longwood recognized its seven-man senior class of Michael Catlin, Andrew Corbitt, Mac McCafferty, Sammy Miller, Justin Mitchell, Zach Potojecki, and Ryan Shull before its doubleheader with Gardner-Webb on May 20.
•The Lancers took care of business with a 10-3 win in the first game to clinch the final postseason spot, sending the class for the third time.
•The fourth-year players have played each of their games under Ryan Mau, the first class to have played every game at Longwood under Mau.
•All of Longwood's games in the conference tournament will be broadcast between the Big South Network and on the ESPN family of networks. Tuesday and Thursday will be on the Big South Network, Wednesday will be on ESPN , Friday on ESPN3, and Saturday on ESPNU.
•All of Longwood's games in the postseason can be heard on the radio with third-year play-by-play man Darius Thigpen on the call.
•Junior right-handed relief pitcher Eric Harp picked up his first-career Big South Relief Pitcher of the Week award for his dominance at USC Upstate on March 7.
•Harp, a 6-foot-9 relief ace, tossed 4.0 shutout innings with one hit and one walk with 11 strikeouts. In the final game of the series Harp tossed 3.2 perfect innings, striking out nine of 11 batters faced.
•Tyler Morgan picked up the Big South Pitcher of the Week award on April 16, becoming the 10th 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
4/16/18 Tyler Morgan
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
Longwood In The Big South Tournament
•Longwood plays its elimination game Wednesday with an all-time record of 5-7 in the Big South Championship.
•Under fourth-year head coach
Ryan Mau Longwood owns a 3-5 record in the Big South Baseball Championship, winning games in each of the previous two trips.
•After Longwood missed the postseason in 2017, the Lancers return to the conference tournament for the first time since a record-setting 2016.
•In 2016, in as the three-seed after finishing tied for second in the league, Longwood won a pair of games, making the semifinal for the second time in program history. In 2016 Longwood topped No. 6 Winthrop 8-6 to open the championship, fell to #7 Liberty 9-3 on the second day, topped #2 High Point 18-13, and was eliminated by #1 Coastal Carolina by a 5-1 final in the semifinal.
•Longwood's 18-13 win against High Point set a tournament record with 31 combined runs scored and topped Longwood's previous tournament-best performance of 11 runs, done against #3 High Point in 2013 as the seven-seed.
•Longwood has played High Point the most often in the tournament and owns a 2-1 record against the Panthers. Longwood has eliminated High Point in 2013 and 2016, but High Point eliminated Longwood in 2015.
Longwood Against The Field
•Longwood has played 11 games in the Big South tournament, nine against current members. Longwood is 0-2 in the tournament against Coastal Carolina.
vs. Campbell -- 0-2
vs. Gardner-Webb -- 1-0
vs. High Point -- 2-1
vs. Liberty -- 1-1
vs. Radford -- 0-1
vs. Winthrop -- 1-0
•Longwood last faced Campbell in 2013, the Lancers' first trip to the tournament, also hosted by Liberty that year. The Lancers fell to No. 1 Campbell 8-6 in the semifinal as Campbell eliminated Longwood. The loss was the final game for Longwood under legendary head coach Buddy Bolding.
•Longwood faced Gardner-Webb in 2013, topping the Runnin' Bulldogs 6-5 to earn a spot in the semifinal.
•Each time Longwood and High Point have played have been in elimination games, the latest in 2016, an 18-13 Longwood win.
•Liberty topped Longwood 9-3 on the second day of the 2016 tournament after Longwood eliminated the Flames, 4-3, in 2015.
•No. 1 Radford bested Longwood 5-3 in the opening round in 2015.
•Longwood, No. 3 in 2016, topped No. 6 Winthrop, 8-6, in the opening round.
#WoodYouBelieve
