FARMVILLE, Va. -- In a battle of bullpens, Richmond took advantage of an eighth-inning fielding error and killed back-to-back Longwood rallies in the eighth and ninth innings to pull out a 3-2 win over the Lancers Wednesday evening at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
 
Longwood sophomore shortstop Antwaun Tucker came within 90 feet of tying the game in the eighth after ripping an RBI triple to the right-field gap, but the Spiders (25-20) called on shutdown closer Layne Looney to escape the jam and keep the 3-2 lead intact. The hard-throwing right-hander answered the call, stranding both Tucker and Jawan McAllister in scoring position by striking out three straight Lancers to end Longwood's go-ahead threat.
 
Richmond then went even deeper into its bullpen in the ninth, handing the ball to Brandon Johnson and Daniel Brumbaugh who worked around Justin Mitchell's one-out walk and stolen base to kill Longwood's final rally.
 
Those three Richmond relievers recorded five of the game's final six outs by strikeout, allowing the Spiders to outlast a Longwood (15-32) team that used seven different relievers to hold Richmond to just three runs on six hits. The last and most damaging of those Richmond runs came via error when a high popup in the top of the eighth fell between three Lancers and allowed Richmond leadoff man Sage Bruhl to score from second base, unearned, with two outs.
 
That run proved to be the difference, as Longwood left three men on base in the final two innings – all in scoring position.
 
Longwood's missed scoring opportunities squandered multiple quality relief appearances from Longwood's staff, as seven different relievers combined to hold Richmond to three runs on six hits in the three-plus-hour barn burner. Lancer starter Michael Catlin – a career reliever himself – combined with Zach Potojecki and John Gregory to shut out Richmond through the first five frames before the Spiders finally broke through against Eric Harp in the sixth.
 
That breakthrough took shape in a two-run sixth that began with a leadoff single from Justin Cook and culminated on a go-ahead sacrifice fly from Johnson, who started the game as the designated hitter. Bruhl followed his sac fly with an RBI double that plated Michael Strait and extended Richmond's lead to 2-0, rewarding Richmond starter Collin Lowe (2-1) with the eventual win after the freshman right-hander tossed 6.0 innings of scoreless baseball.

Longwood bounced back after the two-run sixth, turning to Todd Moxey, Daniel Brandon and Tommy Green to close out the final three innings. Those three delivered, allowing just one unearned run between them.
 
But while Longwood used seven pitchers to hold Richmond in check, Lowe shouldered the first two-thirds of the game himself, scattering just four hits while striking out eight Lancers on 101 pitches. He left the game with that 2-0 lead at the start of the seventh, yielding to Foster Roy and Antonio Balducci, who Longwood touched up for runs in the seventh and eighth on Mitchell's RBI groundout and Tucker's RBI triple.
 
However, the Spiders righted the ship two batters into the ninth when Looney stepped in and shook off an early walk to McAllister to sit down the bottom of Longwood's lineup on three straight strikeouts.
 
The loss comes in the final non-conference home matchup of the season for the Lancers, who hit the road this weekend to face Big South foe Presbyterian in Clinton, S.C., for a three-game series on May 11-13. From there, Longwood heads back to Virginia to face James Madison in a Tuesday non-conference bout in Harrisonburg before returning to Buddy Bolding Stadium for the regular-season finale against Gardner-Webb on May 17-19.
 
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