The First Pitch:
• Longwood returns home for the lone home game amid a stretch of eight of nine (and nine of 11) away from Buddy Bolding Stadium.
• The Lancers open up Big South play this coming weekend with a trip to UNC Asheville.
• Longwood played against a team in the top 30 of the RPI over the weekend when they traveled to East Tennessee State.
• The Lancers lead the Big South, and rank eighth, in the nation in stolen bases with 52 this season. Tre Keels is third nationally.
• Longwood takes on a VMI team that leads the nation in stolen bases (120), with Owen Prince leading the country in both steals (30) and steals per game (1.5).
Previous Series
• Longwood hung tough with East Tennessee State over the weekend against a Bucs squad that ranked 30th in the RPI.
• Longwood held the lead through four innings in each of the final two games behind strong starts from both
Ried Dittner and Guillermo Garcia, Jr.
• Dittner went 4.1 innings in the second game of a doubleheader on Friday, and Garcia went 7.2 innings in the series finale on Saturday.
• Garcia's start was his deepest collegiate outing, and he only gave up three runs, which all came in the eighth inning.
• Offensively, the Lancers led 4-0 in game two and 3-0 in the finale after four innings. Longwood also led 4-3 in the 11th of the finale.
Around The Bases:
• Longwood takes on VMI in the first of two meetings this season between the two teams, with the two teams scheduled to meet again on Tuesday, April 1 at VMI.
• The Lancers are coming off their second extra-innings game this season after going to 11 innings against ETSU in the series finale.
• ETSU was ranked in the top 30 of the RPI coming into the weekend, marking the fourth matchup against a team in the top 100 of the RPI for Longwood.
• The Lancers have also played Wright State (No. 84), Penn State (No. 87) and Boston College (No. 59).
• Longwood has a win over a top 100 team in the RPI this season after taking down Boston College in a midweek contest.
• The Lancers have played 10 games against teams in the top 100 of the RPI, and the team's non-conference strength of schedule ranks 154th.
• Longwood also went to extra innings against UAlbany in the series finale on March 2.
• This season, Longwood has had multiple stolen bases 15 times in 20 games, and the team has had at least four stolen bags six times.
• The continuous running has Longwood leading the Big South, and ranking eighth nationally, in stolen bases.
• Tre Keels is perfect on steal attempts at 19-19, good for third nationally in steals. He is sixth in steals per game (0.95).
• Seven times this season, Keels has stolen multiple bases in a game.
• With five triples, the Lancers are also third in the Big South in three-baggers.
•
James Nelson leads Longwood with seven doubles, good for fifth in the Big South.
SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Record vs. VMI 13-18
Under Coach Noe 0-0
Current Streak L 1
First Meeting L 6-1 in 1979
Last Meeting L 14-7 on 4/30/2019
• Longwood and VMI have not played since 2019.
• The two teams met every season from 2016-19, with home-and-homes occurring in both 2017 and 2018.
• VMI has won four of the previous five meetings, with Longwood's lone win coming in 2018 in Lexington, 11-9.
• This year's meeting, of course, pits Head Coach
Ray Noe against his former employer, VMI, where he worked as an assistant for five seasons.
STATS COMPARISON
LWU VMI
2025 Record 5-15 13-7
Conference 0-0 0-0
Batting Average .235 .332
Opp. Batting Average .334 .297
Hits 141 199
Hits allowed 229 191
Runs 105 238
Opposing runs 201 141
Runs per game 5.3 11.9
Doubles 35 38
Opposing doubles 41 32
Triples 5 6
Opposing triples 7 5
Home Runs 6 29
Opposing home runs 29 23
RBI 83 214
OBP .352 .504
SLG .340 .560
SB-ATT 52-59 121-141
Opposing SB-ATT 36-45 38-43
Walks drawn 81 183
Walks Allowed 96 76
Strikeouts 183 145
Opposing Strikeouts 135 173
Earned run average 8.96 6.64
Innings pitched 163.2 157.1
Earned runs allowed 163 116
FLD% .959 .960
Errors 29 26
#GoWood #HorsePower
