Longwood University Athletics

Game 43: Longwood (15-27, 8-20 Big South) vs. High Point (14-24, 12-18 Big South)
Date & Time	May 11, 2021 • 6 p.m.
Location	Farmville, Va. (Buddy Bolding Stadium)
Series Notes	Longwood (PDF) | High Point | Big South
Statistics	Longwood (HTML) | High Point | Big South
Live Stats	Longwood Live Stats
Radio	WVHL
TV/Video	ESPN+
Social Media	@LongwoodLancers | @LongwoodBase

Lancer Leadoff

• Longwood hosts High Point in the team's final midweek game. The team still has a pair of weekend series left this spring.
• The Lancers and High Point are meeting for the fifth time this season. The two sides played a midweek game on March 16 and a three-game series April 9-10.
• Longwood's offense has had at least 10 hits in six of its past seven games, a stretch that includes a three-game sweep of Radford. The streak began against USC Upstate on April 23 in the second game of a doubleheader.
• The team has played 42 games, second-most in the Big South.
• The Lancer offense is third in the Big South in hits (376) and fourth in runs (235).
• Ricky Jimenez comes in as one of the hottest hitters on the team, batting .538 (7-13) over the weekend. The junior shortstop is hitting .322 in Big South play this season.
• Longwood's pitching staff is third in the Big South in strikeouts (335) and K's per nine innings (8.42). The staff has finished in the top three of the league four times in head coach Ryan Mau's six prior seasons at the helm.

Last Time Out

• Andrew Melnyk earned his second straight win on the mound with 7.2 strong innings, and James Nelson and Drayven Kowalski combined for five RBI in a 5-3 takedown of UNC Asheville in the series finale. Nelson drove in three runs with a pair of two-out RBI base knocks that prevented a sweep.

By The Numbers

• Longwood is third in the Big South with 376 base hits, and the team is sixth with a .265 batting average. The team has posted a season-high 15 hits twice. The first came against NC Central in a 22-14 win, while the second came in a 7-6 loss to Presbyterian.
• Over the past seven games, Longwood is hitting .358 (78-218), and the team has tallied at least 10 hits in six of those games.
• In the 19 games that Longwood has had at least 10 hits this season, the team has gone 13-6. 
• Longwood has posted at least 10 hits in nine of their past 12 games.
• Longwood's offense tied for third in the Big South with 150 hits in 2020 while ranking fourth in hits per game with 8.8. The team was also third in RBI with 77.
• Eliot Dix has mashed in the middle of the lineup for Longwood in 2021. The freshman leads Longwood in batting average (.328) and is just outside the top 10 in the Big South in slugging percentage (.485). He is 10th in RBI with 34. 
• This season, Dix is tied for the team lead with 13 multi-hit games while also posting seven multi-RBI games, good for a tie for second.
• Hayden Harris has excelled in the lineup for Longwood, hitting .302 in conference games while posting a .295 average overall. He leads the team with 28 runs scored.
• Over his past six games, he has had multi-hit games five times while hitting .461 (12-26) in that stretch, encompassing three games against Radford and three at UNC Asheville.
• Freshman James Nelson has provided a big spark in the lineup as the season turned to April, with the big left-handed freshman hitting .354 this season while driving in 14 runs in 48 at bats.
• Over three games against UNC Asheville, Nelson drove in five runs while going 3-9 at the plate. In the finale, he tallied three RBI, one shy of his career high, and all three RBI came with two outs.
• Ricky Jimenez has come on as the year has gone along, with the junior shortstop hitting .322 in conference games and .290 on the season. He has six doubles and four homers in Big South play.
• Over his past 12 games, Jimenez is hitting .439 (18-41), dating back to April 17 in the first game of a doubleheader against Presbyterian. He has six multi-hit games in that stretch.

Scouting High Point

• Longwood and High Point meet for the fifth and final time of 2021. Four of the five meetings will be in Farmville. High Point won the first three meetings between the two teams, winning the first midweek matchup 9-2 before taking the first two games of the three-game series 12-2 and 11-3. Longwood bounced back to take the series finale 8-1.
• On the season, High Point has a better road record than home record, going 8-11 on the road compared to 6-12 at home. The Panthers have won three of their nine conference series this season.
• The team sits in ninth in the Big South standings by mere percentage points, half a game back of both Winthrop and Radford for seventh. With seven games to play, High Point sits within striking distance of a playoff spot, with Presbyterian currently holding the fourth and final spot with a 13-14 conference record.
• The Panthers come in having lost three straight over the weekend to league-leading USC Upstate, 10-6, 12-9 and 10-5. Prior to that, High Point won two of three in a high-scoring series against Winthrop in Rock Hill. The Panthers took the opener 11-2 before losing 11-10 in 10 innings in game two. However, High Point rallied to win game three 19-15.
• Offensively, High Point sits in the middle of the Big South in most offensive categories outside of strikeouts. The Panthers have struck out a league-low 214 times.
• Cole Singsank leads the team with a .362 batting average and is tied for the team lead with 29 RBI. Peyton Carr also has 29 RBI and is hitting .297. Four players have at least 23 RBI, with Travis Holt (.245, 25 RBI) and Adam Stuart (.278, 23 RBI) also posting at least 20 RBI. Joe Johnson leads the team with 37 runs scored and 14 doubles, and he is hitting .295 while tying Singsank and Brady Pearre with a team-best 21 walks.
• On the mound, High Point has used a rotating group in midweek contests, with five different pitchers starting at least three games this season outside of ace Grey Lyttle (4-5, 3.65 ERA). Lyttle is the innings and strikeouts leader for the team in 13 appearances, 12 starts. Out of the bullpen, five players have made at least 10 appearances. Gryffyn Shelton (1-0, 4.26 ERA) has the lowest ERA and has struck out eight in 12.2 innings over 11 appearances. Chris Apecechea (2-1, 4.58 ERA) has made 13 appearances and has nine K's in 19.2 innings over 14 appearances and one start. Carter Sheppard (1-4, 5.80 ERA, 2 SV) has made 12 relief appearances and one start while striking out 41 in 40.1 innings.
• Parker Dean (1-1, 6.53 ERA, 2 SV) has made 12 relief appearances with 14 strikeouts in 20.2 innings. Reid Viar (0-0, 9.00 ERA) has eight strikeouts in 13.0 innings over 10 appearances, all in relief.
• CJ Neese (1-1, 6.97 ERA, 1 SV) has made 10 appearances, three of them starts, and has struck out 16 in 20.2 innings while earning one save.
• Joe Johnson (0-1, 6.75 ERA, 1 SV) has also made a pair of appearances on the season, one start and one relief stint, and has 1.1 innings of work.

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