The First Pitch:
• Longwood plays its home opener on Tuesday afternoon against VCU after the series against Wright State was moved to a neutral site due to the effects of a winter storm.
• The matchup will be the first of two meetings between Longwood and VCU this season.
• Both Longwood and VCU have new head coaches, with
Ray Noe at the helm for the Lancers while Sean Thompson is in his first season at VCU.
• The game against VCU opens up five straight at home as the Lancers host Penn State for four games this weekend.
• Longwood and VCU have split the season series in each of the last two years, with each team going 2-0 at home and 0-2 on the road.
Previous Series
• Longwood fell to preseason Horizon League favorite Wright State 12-1 and 14-8 in a doubleheader. The final game was canceled due to weather.
• Wright State, who averaged better than nine runs per game a season ago, got off to a strong start to take the first game of the series.
• In game two, the Lancers struck for six runs in the first inning for a 6-1 lead, but Wright State's offense answered by chipping away the lead.
• The Raiders took the lead in the fourth inning. Longwood rallied late, but the comeback was not quite enough.
•
Myles Webb had a pair of doubles and added three RBI on the weekend.
Around The Bases:
• Longwood resumes a season midweek series against VCU, with 2025 marking the fourth straight season the two teams will play a home and home midweek series.
• The Lancers have won two of the last three after VCU had won seven straight, dating back to 2016, prior.
• In the season-opening series, Longwood stole six bases against Wright State.
• The Lancers were a perfect 6-6 on stolen base attempts.
• The team stole three bases in each game, and the three steals per game is tied for the Big South lead and ranks 19th nationally.
•
Mac Tufts stole two, leading Longwood in steals on the weekend as five different players stole a base.
• Fittingly, Longwood's first run of the season came on a double steal, with
Casey Gibbs stealing home.
• Longwood also turned four double plays on the weekend, good for the top mark in the Big South and 15th nationally.
• The average of two double plays per game is tied for second nationally.
•
Caleb Grizzard struck out five batters in 2.1 innings in his Longwood debut.
• Four different pitchers made their Longwood debut, and six different position players did the same.
•
Myles Webb has a team high three base hits on the weekend.
• Out of Longwood's eight hits in two games, six were for extra bases (five doubles and a triple).
• The Lancers also drew 11 walks while only surrendering 10.
• Tre Keels led the team with three walks, and
Jae'dan Carter and
Carter Newman had two.
SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Record vs. VCU 7-20
Under Coach Noe 0-0
Current Streak W 1
First Meeting W 11-10 1985
Last Meeting W 4-0 3/12/2024
• Longwood won the second meeting between the two teams last year in a 4-0 shutout at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
• In the win,
Noah Campanelli had three hits and three RBI, and
Willie Havens added two hits and two runs scored.
• The Lancer pitching staff, meanwhile, limited VCU to four hits.
• VCU won the first meeting between the two teams in Richmond, outscoring Longwood 16-6.
STATS COMPARISON
LWU VCU
2025 Record 0-2 1-2
Conference 0-0 0-0
Batting Average .136 .235
Opp. Batting Average .366 .344
Hits 8 19
Hits allowed 30 32
Runs 9 12
Opposing runs 26 31
Runs per game 4.5 4
Doubles 5 2
Opposing doubles 2 8
Triples 1 0
Opposing triples 0 0
Home Runs 0 3
Opposing home runs 5 0
RBI 7 11
OBP .278 .330
SLG .254 .370
SB-ATT 6-6 3-8
Opposing SB-ATT 4-6 8-9
Walks drawn 11 6
Walks Allowed 10 18
Strikeouts 27 18
Opposing Strikeouts 15 13
Earned run average 7.00 10.12
Innings pitched 18 21.1
Earned runs allowed 14 24
FLD% .897 .957
Errors 9 4
#GoWood #HorsePower