CLINTON, S.C. – Longwood baseball staved off a sweep and picked up an important road win at Presbyterian on Sunday afternoon.
 
Bentley Yeatts had a career day, driving in a career best three runs to lead the charge on offense. But it was a complete group effort, as five different Lancers (9-23, 4-5 Big South) scored, six Lancers had a hit, and five Lancers recorded an RBI on the day.
 
Meanwhile, the Longwood pitching staff limited Presbyterian (16-17, 8-4 Big South) to four runs on seven hits behind a solid start from Ried Dittner. The Lancer staff struck out 10.
 
SCORING:
               R             H            E
LWU      8             8             0
PC          4             7             0
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
The Lancers jumped out to an early lead when James Nelson doubled home a run in the first inning. Mikey Urbaniak plated a second run as well.
 
PC cut the lead to 2-1, but the Lancers scored again when Urbaniak doubled in Myles Webb in the third for a 3-1 lead.
 
Dittner (2-2), meanwhile, kept Presbyterian off balance for four innings. He didn't give up a hit after the first inning, and he retired the side in order twice in his four innings to get the win for Longwood. The big righthander struck out five against four walks and one hit in four innings.
 
Yeatts extended the Longwood lead in the sixth with an RBI single, and Casey Gibbs plated another with a squeeze bunt for a 5-1 lead.
 
Presbyterian rallied in the seventh and trimmed the lead to 5-4, but Longwood answered in the eighth. Yeatts capped the scoring with a two-run single through the left side that extended the lead back to four runs, 8-4.
 
Wyatt Bunch and Ethan Plesser combined to shut the game down late. Bunch came on in the eighth and got out of a jam, and then Plesser retired the final batter of the game after taking the ball from Bunch with two on and two out in the ninth.
 
Sean Hollister (4-2) took the loss for Presbyterian. He gave up three runs on four hits and two walks in three innings of work.
 
WHAT THEY SAID:
 
"Big Sunday win for us to stay in the hunt in the conference," said Longwood Head Coach Ray Noe. "We got a great start from Dittner, and we pieced it together from there. We were on the plus side of those 50/50 moments today that can change the direction of the game for better or worse, which was huge."
 
"Like I said yesterday, our team doesn't quit, and we just continued to stay the course," Noe added. "We picked each other up after some failed execution, which is what good teams do. It was a complete team win."
 
UP NEXT:
 
Longwood returns home for a four-game homestand, beginning with a midweek contest against James Madison on Tuesday night. First pitch at Buddy Bolding Stadium is at 5 p.m., and the game will air on ESPN+.
 
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