HIGH POINT, N.C. – One run games come down to inches, and High Point's Sam Zayicek lined a ball up the middle that was inches away from the center of
Jon Peterson's glove to walk off Longwood 8-7 on an RBI single. Longwood had rallied to take a 7-6 lead in the eighth, but High Point capitalized on two late opportunities to finish off a sweep a windy Monday afternoon.
The Lancers (9-26, 4-11 Big South) trailed 6-2 headed into the eighth but put up a huge inning after
Jawan McAllister battled to draw a leadoff walk. Another walk and an error loaded the bases with no outs, and
Carlos Garrido poked a soft line drive single to center that scored two, and
Nate Blakeney hit a sacrifice fly that knocked in one more.
Jack Schnell launched a fly ball that carried over the left field wall for a two-run home run and electrified the Longwood dugout as the team took a 7-6 lead. It was the sophomore's first homer of the season and second of his career.
"
Jawan McAllister started us with a tough at bat to draw a walk, and we just kind of rolled from there," said Longwood head coach
Ryan Mau. "Carlos stepped up with a big hit, and we drove some balls around and really moved some runners up. And obviously, the big swing came from Jack."
High Point (15-18, 8-7 Big South) bounced back and tied it up with a two out rally. After a pair of singles put two on, a popup by Evan Bergman landed between the mound and first as Peterson and first baseman
Hunter Gilliam collided on the play. The tying run scored from second, but Peterson induced a grounder to short to escape any further damage.
An error put the leadoff runner aboard in the bottom of the ninth, and High Point loaded the bases with one out before Zayicek's liner up the middle off Peterson's outstretched glove won the game.
"We put ourselves in a really good position to win a ballgame, and unfortunately the ball just didn't bounce our way" said Mau. "It doesn't take away the fight that we showed today, which I was really proud of. Hopefully it is something we can build off of down this homestretch."
With the wind blowing out to left, High Point swatted a pair of solo homers in the bottom of the first to erase a one-run Longwood lead after a Garrido RBI single in the top of the first. The Panthers added two runs in the second to take a 4-1 lead through two innings.
John Gregory came out of the bullpen for Longwood to start the third inning and shut things down. The junior left-hander struck out a pair and threw pitch-for-pitch with High Point starter and Big South Preseason Pitcher of the Year Andrew Gottfried. Gregory pitched into the bottom of the seventh and ultimately was tagged for one run on four hits after the leadoff runner in the seventh reached and scored. Prior to that, Gregory had thrown four scoreless innings.
"The plan was to go to John early, and I thought he gave us the best chance to hang around the middle innings," said Mau. "He was really good today. He was able to throw his changeup and his breaking ball in any count and really kept those hitters off balance."
Meanwhile, the Lancers trimmed the lead to two with a quick two-out rally of their own.
Nate Blakeney roped a double to left field, and
Jack Schnell lined an RBI single to right-center to cut it to 4-2. Schnell finished the day 2-3 with three RBI.
Travis Holt launched a two-run home run over the left field wall for High Point in the bottom of the seventh that made it 6-2, and it was the third homer of the game for High Point.
Peterson (2-2) took the loss for Longwood with one strikeout in 1.1 innings while giving up two runs, one earned, on five hits and an intentional walk.
Jacob Winger (2-1) earned the win after coming on in relief for High Point in the eighth inning. He surrendered three runs, all unearned, on two hits while striking out one.
Longwood continues a busy stretch with four games in five days through the rest of the week, all on the road. The Lancers head to NC Central on Tuesday night with the first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. down in Durham, North Carolina.
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