FARMVILLE, Va. – The offense piled up 32 hits on the day for Longwood baseball, and it powered a doubleheader split for the Lancers (2-8) against UAlbany on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Lancers smacked a season-best 19 hits while scoring 15 runs to win the first game 15-4, with both the runs and hits a season-high on the young campaign.
 
In game two, UAlbany (2-4) plated six runs in the final two innings to erase an early Lancer lead 10-7.
 
James Nelson had a big day by racking up six hits in two games to stay hot. He has had five straight multi-hit games. Myles Webb added five more base knocks through the two games for Longwood.
 
GAME ONE: Longwood 15, UAlbany 4
 
The offense was almost unstoppable for Longwood in the first game of the day, with the Lancers scoring in six of the eight played innings. Nelson and Webb both had a trio of base hits, as did Mac Tufts. Mikey Urbaniak also broke out with a four-hit game for his first four collegiate base hits.
 
Tufts, Nelson and Tre Keels each had three RBI as well, and the Lancers had eight players with a hit and eight with an RBI, and all nine players in the batting order scored a run.
 
Nelson opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first and Urbaniak picked up his first collegiate hit one batter later on an RBI single.
 
Nelson helped break the game open in the fourth by pounding a home run to center field for his second home run of the season.
 
Keels added a three-run shot in the fifth for his first homer as a Lancer, and the Lancers ended the game in the eighth on two-run double by Tufts that extended the lead to 15-4.
 
Guillermo Garcia, Jr. (1-2) was credited with the win after going 4.1 innings. He struck out six against four walks and four hits while giving up two runs. Braydon Gray picked up a save for throwing the final three innings. He didn't allow a run while striking out four against four hits.
 
Matthew Mariano (0-2) took the loss for UAlbany after giving up six runs on nits and four walks in four innings.
 
GAME TWO: UAlbany 10, Longwood 7
 
For the second time in three games, late runs keyed UAlbany to the win, with the Great Danes plating seven runs in the last two innings to down Longwood 10-7.
 
Nelson again was a big factor for the Lancers with a 3-5 outing at the plate. Jayson Nash added two hits and two RBI, and Myles Webb, Bentley Yeatts and Jayson Nash all had two base knocks.
 
Nash opened the scoring this time, with the freshman first baseman poking a single to center for a 2-0 lead.
 
After UAlbany tied the score on a two-run single by Thomas McElwee tied the score, Keels hammered an RBI triple to center for a 3-2 Lancer lead.
 
Longwood eventually extended the lead to 7-3 with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth.
 
UAlbany rallied in the eighth, plating four to tie the game. McElwee poked a double to the centerfield wall to push home the tying runs, and the Great Danes took the lead on Anthony Scarabino's two-run shot to center in the ninth.
 
Mark Gajowski (1-0) earned the win for UAlbany, striking out six in 4.1 innings of work. He gave up two runs on five hits and three walks.
 
Justin Gunter (1-2) took the loss for Longwood. He walked two and gave up two hits in 0.2 innings, giving up three runs in the ninth. He struck out one.
 
Alex Strickland was solid in the start for Longwood. He gave up three runs, all earned, on five hits and two walks while striking out three in 4.2 innings of work in his first collegiate start.
 
WHAT THEY SAID:
 
"Obviously based on the game yesterday, I'm really pleased with the response," Noe said about his overall impression of the day. "Eighteen innings in a day is tough, and I thought the guys were ready to go. The offense and Guillermo Garcia in the first game gave us a chance to win. The offense is continuing to progress and move forward, which I talked about yesterday too. Anytime you can get 19 hits in a game and produce 15 runs, we feel pretty good."
 
"I thought Strickland battled early," Noe said about his freshman starting pitcher in game two. "He didn't have his best stuff, but he found a way to get us through it, which I was really pleased with. He's a freshman that's continuing to learn, and we put him in some big situations whether it's been starts or different spots when he's come into the game."
 
"Then Wyatt Bunch kept us in it for a while, and I was really proud of him," Noe added. "He didn't have a great outing against Charlotte, but we just have to learn how to finish. We're a young team and inexperienced. I can live with today, just from the standpoint that we actually played quality baseball. The game is a game. You win and lose. To play clean, to have 13 hits [in game two], to only walk four guys in a game, that's a pretty good recipe for success. Now we just have to learn how to finish and try to avoid the crooked numbers there in the eighth and ninth, which ended up being the nail in the coffin for us. "
 
"Continuing to make quality pitches when we have two strikes on the hitter," said Noe when asked about what it takes to get over the hump late in games. "When we have two strikes on the hitter, we're kind of struggling with that execution right now. I mean the Gunter home run that the kid put a good swing on, we were in an 0-2 count and just left a pitch over the middle of the plate. That's been a consistent thing amongst the staff. They do a great job in practice with execution pens and things of that nature, but just getting them to be, maybe, even a little bit more selfish with two strikes to be able to make a quality pitcher rather than something over the heart. Good hitters know how to hit, and when you leave it over the middle of the plate, they tend to do damage. So we just have to be a little bit better with that."
 
"Big thing was talking with the guys and seeing where they were at from a mentality standpoint," Noe said when talking about the team's offensive eruption in the weekend series, where they have piled up 42 hits in three games. "Early, with a younger and inexperience group, a lot of guys were trying to press and say, 'Hey, can I get that first?' 'Oh no, my batting average is a little bit down lower than what I wanted.' Starting to get real stats to their name. That's a real thing. So putting them at ease with conversations about how we trust them, we love them, and we need to continue to push forward. I think their body language over the course of this weekend has been much more relaxed and calm, and we're having fun. That's what it's all about. It's a game. I talk about that with them all the time. It's part of our pillars of our program. When you play loose, you have better opportunities to have success than when anyone plays tight or nervous, you usually can't get the best out of someone. It was good to see, and we're going to continue to progress. But the plans have been good, and they've executed. That's the name of the game."
 
UP NEXT:
 
The final game of the series has been shifted to start at noon on Sunday afternoon.
 
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