The First Pitch:
• Longwood opens up a seven-game road swing, its second-longest road swing of the 2023 campaign.
• The Lancers will play their third game against a ranked team, with a trip to No. 21 N.C. State on Tuesday afternoon.
• The meeting with N.C. State is the team's third matchup with the Wolf Pack in the past four seasons.
• Longwood then heads to Liberty for its second straight week with back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• The longest road trip of the season is an eight-game venture that sees the Lancers open with back-to-back conference trips on the road to Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville with midweek trips to VCU and Richmond. The trip spans from Friday, March 17 to Tuesday, March 28.
•
Eliot Dix has a team-best .407 batting average while
Gregory Ryan leads the team with nine RBI.
Last Series Notes:
• Longwood won two of three against reigning MEAC regular season champ Delaware State.
• The Lancers won the opening two games of the series 8-4 and 12-5.
• Longwood swatted a total of six home runs in those two games.
• In the series finale, Delaware State rallied for seven runs in the final two innings to prevent a sweep.
• Longwood notched at least 10 hits in each of the three games in the series, and the Lancers had a season-best 12 hits in back-to-back games to wrap up the weekend.
• The Lancer pitching staff also struck out 21 batters in the two wins.
•
Gregory Ryan and
James Nelson each had a pair of home runs in the series.
Around The Bases:
• Longwood was picked to finish sixth in the Big South Preseason Poll after finishing eighth in the final standings in 2022.
• The Lancers are third in home runs, with 10, through eight games.
• Six different players have homered for the Lancers:
Eliot Dix,
Gregory Ryan,
Hayden Harris and
James Nelson,
Dylan Wilkinson and
Luis DeLeon.
• Ryan and Nelson both lead the Lancers with three home runs apiece.
• The duo are tied for second in the Big South with each other.
• Ryan is also fourth in the Big South in RBI with 9, a mark that leads the Lancers.
• Dix has eight RBI and is tied for fifth in the Big South.
• Dix is ninth in the Big South with a .407 batting average, which is the top mark on the team. His 11 hits are tied for second, along with Ryan.
• The Lancers have also drawn 41 walks as a team, which is good for third in the league, and the team's 14 doubles rank second in the Big South.
• On the mound,
Andrew Potojecki is sixth in the Big South with a 1.69 ERA through two starts.
Ryan Miller is ninth with a 2.45 ERA.
•
Ryan Miller is fourth in the Big South with 14 strikeouts, and
Andrew Melnyk is tied for seventh with 12.
• Potojecki leads the Big South with six batters struck out looking.
• Melnyk has now struck out 12 batters across 5.1 innings of relief work.
• The left-hander struck out six straight to earn a save in the series opener against Delaware State. He entered with Longwood holding a 5-4 lead, and he struck out six in a row after issuing a walk to the first batter he saw.
• In his first appearance of the season, Melnyk struck out half the batters he faced. The lefthander struck out six in 3.1 innings of work on Sunday, Feb. 19 against Mount St. Mary's.
• In Head Coach
Chad Oxendine's first season last year, the Lancers posted 20 wins for the first time since 2016.
• In addition, the team had its best conference winning percentage (.471, 10-14)) since that 2016 season saw the Lancers go 14-10 in Big South play.
#GoWood #HorsePower
