FARMVILLE, Va. – Guillermo Garcia, Jr. has been a rock in the rotation for Longwood baseball this season. The team needed another big start, and Garcia delivered in the final start of his Longwood (12-38, 6-16 Big South) career on Thursday night against Radford.
 
The righthander tied a career high with nine strikeouts over seven strong innings to lead the way, and Ried Dittner shut the door for the final two against the Highlanders (27-24, 13-9 Big South)
 
Carter Newman and James Nelson helped lead the Lancer offense with two base hits apiece. Newman drove in the tying run, and Nelson drove in the go-ahead run.
 
SCORING:
               R             H            E
RAD       4             10           1
LWU      5             8             1
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
Garcia and Radford starter Breckin Nace went toe-to-toe for two innings, but Radford's offense found some wiggle room in the third inning with good two-out hitting.
 
Nace drove in the opening run, and two more runs scored for a 3-0 lead.
 
Garcia recovered from there, but Radford led 4-0 going into the bottom of the fourth after a Jhonkeanu Perez RBI single.
 
Longwood's offense loaded the bases in the bottom half of the fourth and scratched a run across on an RBI fielder's choice from Mac Tufts. Tre Keels then straight stole home to cut the lead to two and spark the Lancers.
 
While the inning ended with the Lancers down two, Garcia proceeded to put up three straight zeros to give the team a chance.
 
The Lancers took advantage. Jae'dan Carter clobbered a solo home run to left field to start the fifth, his second homer of the season, and the Lancers were off. After a Mikey Urbaniak double, Newman hit him home with an RBI single, and Nelson doubled off the wall to drive home Newman for a 5-4 lead.
 
That was enough. Garcia stayed in the zone, and Dittner came on for the eighth and ninth. He gave up a leadoff single but didn't surrender another hit for the final two innings while striking out three.
 
Garcia (5-5) earned his fifth win of the season behind his seven innings of work. He gave up four runs, three earned, on nine hits and two walks against his nine strikeouts. Dittner picked up his second save of the year with his two-inning effort.
 
Nace (2-2) took the loss for Radford. He gave up five runs, three earned, on eight hits while striking out a career high seven.
 
WHAT THEY SAID:
 
"That was a pretty special one," said Longwood Head Coach Ray Noe. "We had Guillermo Garcia out there for his last ever start for us, could you ask for anything better? Seven innings, two walks, nine strikeouts. He gave us a chance, left the game with the lead, and then turned it over to Dittner, which you saw two weekends ago against Upstate we had success with. It was really fun to be a part of. Those games are really fun. That's a really good 'Friday night' game whether you are in the Big South or the SEC. That's what it's all about."
 
"Guillermo is the type of kid that we've trusted all year, and you just have to let him work through stuff at times," Noe said about how he trusted Garcia after the righthander ran into trouble in the third. "He's a 21, 22 year-old kid. Sometimes he will just lose a certain pitch or command a little, but we have so much faith in him. There was not even a thought in my mind in the third inning to even get anyone going in the 'pen. It was very, very quiet down there until we took the lead, and we knew we were going to Dittner."
 
"I thought the offense did a great job," Noe said about an offense that saw six different players record a base hit. "Jae'dan Carter had a really big swing there in the fifth, and then Mikey Urbaniak coming back after an injury was huge for our lineup. He's such a good player for us and had a big double. Then we get a single from Newman and James caps it off. I thought, across the board, some guys don't have a hit to their name necessarily, but the at bats were quality. The plan and approach were really good. We're not in a whole ton of 5-4 ballgames this year, so I was really pleased. When you play good defense and you have good starting pitching like that, that's the recipe for success."
 
"Tre is obviously our best base stealer," Noe added about the play where Keels stole home in the fourth inning. "We have freedom throughout the entire lineup on the bases, but home is a new one for me. He is such a chaos creator—that's what we call him. He was timing it up for a couple of pitches. I saw him working, and I have a weird connection with the baserunners and know when they are going to go or not. It was electric. It got the boys fired up, and it was definitely something that I wasn't expecting to see, but it was the right time to do it. Lefty on the mound, your best base runner and arguably your best runner at third base. Perfect time to do it.
 
UP NEXT:
 
The two sides square off for game two of the series on Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. The game will air on ESPN+.
 
#GoWood #HorsePower