Lancer Leadoff

• Longwood opens up an 11-game homestand that will carry the team to the final weekend. The Lancers finish the season at Campbell
• The Lancers have three conference opponents left in 2019 with USC Upstate and Presbyterian coming to Farmville followed by a trip to Campbell to close the regular season.
• Longwood is coming off of a nine-game road trip, its longest of the season, and beat Norfolk State 5-3 to wrap it up.
• The Lancers have hit a home run in three straight games for the third time this season while hitting a homer in five of their last six. With 25 home runs, the Lancers have already surpassed their 2018 home run total.
• Longwood's pitching staff is second in the Big South with 8.84 strikeouts per nine innings and 110 batters struck out looking.
• Fifth-year head coach Ryan Mau picked up his 100th win at Norfolk State. All of his wins have come at Longwood.

By The Numbers

• Longwood kicks off an 11-game homestand with conference foe USC Upstate. Longwood is 1.5 games behind USC Upstate for ninth in the Big South standings. USC Upstate has only played 17 conference games to Longwood's 18.
• Nine of the 10 teams make the Big South Tournament that will be held in Fayetteville, N.C. from May 21-25.
• Longwood has already hit eight home runs in April and 25 this season after hitting 23 in 2018.
• Jacob Mitchell has hit a team-best seven home runs. Hunter Gilliam has hit four, Antwaun Tucker has hit three and De'Andre Pitts, Jawan McAllister, Jack Schnell and Nate Blakeney all have two.
• Gilliam hit the team's first homer of the season on opening weekend against Maryland Eastern Shore.
• Mitchell had the team's first multi-homer game after knocking out two solo shots against Gardner-Webb on March 16 in the first game of a doubleheader.
• Mitchell has been on a tear with three home runs in his last five games after hitting four in the first 31 games of the season.
• Ten players have hit a home run for Longwood after nine players knocked one out of the park in 2018.
• Longwood leads the Big South in steal efficiency after successfully stealing a base 79.4 percent of the time. The Lancers are 54-68 on stolen base attempts this season (fourth in total steals, fifth in attempts)
• Jawan McAllister  and Antwaun Tucker are tied for eighth in the Big South with 12 stolen bases apiece. McAllister is 12-15 while Tucker is a perfect 12-12.
• Tucker has only been caught stealing seven times in his Longwood career. The junior is 46-53 on steals as a Lancer.
• 2019 Big South Stolen Base Success Rate
  Rk. School                                    Success Rate
  1.   Longwood                             79.4% (54-68)
  2.   Winthrop                                 77.8% (63-81)
  3.   Campbell                                77.3% (68-88)
  4.   Gardner-Webb                        76.6% (49-64)
  5.   Radford                                   74.3% (55-74)
• Longwood's offense has racked up a mess of doubles since April 9 at George Mason. The team cranked 21 doubles in eight games and hit four doubles in a game three times.
• The stretch of 21 doubles in four games launched the team into fourth in the Big South in doubles with 65 total on the season.

Last Time Out

• Longwood wrapped up its nine-game road trip with a 5-3 win at Norfolk State. The Lancers keyed on several Norfolk State mistakes to take a 3-1 lead in the third inning, and they led the rest of the way. The win gave head coach Ryan Mau 100 in his Longwood career.

Scouting USC Upstate

• Longwood and USC Upstate have evenly split eight games in their history, but Upstate took two of three against Longwood last season. The Spartans ran away with the first game 14-2 before taking a tight second game 2-0. Longwood rallied to win the third game 3-1 with a pair of runs in the seventh inning.
• USC Upstate has only played 10 road games this season and is 5-5. The Spartans are 12-17 at home.
• Upstate has only hit 12 homers as a team, and no player has more than three (Julian Rip). No player has started more than 34 games of the team's 39. J.J. Shimko leads the team with a .389 batting average in 28 starts and is third on the team with eight doubles. Andres Kim leads the team with 21 runs scored while posting a .320 batting average and driving in a team-high 20 runs. Jeff Taylor (.365 batting average) is the third player hitting above .300 and has driven in 17 runs.
• Will Wheeler has been a lights-out reliever for Upstate and has posted a Big South-leading 1.85 ERA in 39 innings across 18 appearances, all in relief. The right-hander has struck out 60 and leads the Big South with 13.85 strikeouts per nine innings. Batters only hit .140 against him.
• Among the projected starters, Sean Hupp has the lowest ERA (3.95) while striking out 31 in 41 innings. He is making his fourth start. Jordan Marks has started in all 11 of his appearances and has struck out 44 in 53 innings. Kyle Schmitt has struck out 26 in 41.1 innings.