Longwood University Athletics

HAMPTON, Va. - Longwood readies for a weekend series against Big South opponent the Hampton Pirates. 

The Lancers are looking to extend its win streak from four games. Coming off a huge midweek game over Virginia, Longwood's bats are hot including seniors Alexis Wayland, Sydney Jacobsen, and transfer Sydney Guess. Hampton is coming off a weekend series win over Winthrop. Now sitting at 3-6 in the Big South, 13-20 overall, Hampton sits with the fifth best RPI/NET ranking in the conference - Longwood remains in first (28).


LONGWOOD GAME NOTES 
HAMPTON LIVE STATS
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The First Pitch:

• The Lancers (13-18), are entering another Big South series on the road against Hampton. Longwood begins the weekend with a four win streak following a win over ACC opponent UVA and grabbing the sweep against North Carolina A&T.
• Longwood's RPI ranks first in the Big South at 28, with Campbell being the closest behind at 66. The sweep last weekend over the Aggies was the first time Longwood has swept a home series since 2019, where they did so over Campbell and USC Upstate.
• Sydney Backstrom earned her second Pitcher of the Week honor in the Big South this week after an astounding performance from the circle in the three games she played the previous week. Backstrom kept the strong performance going against UVA on Tuesday. She threw eight strikeouts and four perfect innings. Backstrom sits with a b/avg against her of .180. She's gathered a total of 134 K's and three shutouts on the year so far.
• Guess grabbed the walk-off single on Sunday against the Aggies to grab the 8-0 victory that ended early. She continued the momentum into Tuesday evening's game against the Hoos going 1-4 scoring one of the early runs.
• Sophomore Kayley Devivi knocked her second home run of the year over the fence against Virginia. She grabbed two more RBI's and a potential game changing, diving catch in the bottom of the seventh for the second out of the inning.  
• Longwood has won five of the past eight Big South Championship tournaments since joining the conference in 2013 (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019).

 
By The Numbers:

• Ace for Longwood, Sydney Backstrom (10-9), was picked as the Preseason Pitcher of the Year in the conference. Backstrom has backed up the votes earning two Big South Pitcher of the Week honors in the 2022 season, so far. She grabbed her second conference award after her huge week, topped with a conference sweep on their home turf. 
• Alexis Wayland has had a stellar start to her senior year. She's grabbed 21 RBI's, five home runs, four doubles, and a triple so far from the plate. Wayland has started behind the plate in every game this season earning a .973 fld% with 192 PO. Wayland sits with a .281 b/avg and a .517 slg% - best on the Lancers now on the year. Wayland hit back-to-back homeruns in game one against North Carolina A&T, stamping her first multi-homerun game. Last week the senior earned a slg% of 1.100.
• Sydney Guess charted a great week from DP for the Lancers grabbing six starts in the six most recent outings. Guess has now hit game winning RBI's in back-to-back weekends. First coming in game two against Charleston Southern, and the second being in game three against NCAT which ended the game in the bottom of the fifth (W, 8-0).Guess now has a .306 b/avg and .408 slug% on the year.
• Wayland leads the team in RBI's and homeruns, with Lauren Taylor and Korynna Anderson following short behind. Taylor now has 13 RBI's on the year, with Anderson sitting with 12 and three home runs. Anderson hit her first home, homer at her new home at Lancer Field on Saturday Mar. 26.   
• With 130 steals last season, Longwood is only the second team in program history to surpass the century mark in that category. Only the 1999 Lancer squad stole more bases in the program's history, swiping 136 in 53 games. So far on the year, Longwood has collected 50 steals on 65 attempts.

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