FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood closed out the sweep against UMBC on Saturday afternoon at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
Lucas Johnson delivered a walk-off winner at the bottom of the ninth in game one to give the Lancers (6-1) a 4-3 win.
In game two,
Jon Howard had six RBI in the 17-11 win to sweep the Retrievers (0-3).
Game 1: Longwood 4, UMBC 3
Longwood struck first in the bottom of the third after
Jayson Nash hit a two-out double on a full count to drive home
Jae'dan Carter.
Ben Pulliam kept the inning going. He hit a two-run triple to left field to extend the Lancer lead to 3-0.
Lucas Johnson closed it out for the Longwood offense in the third, doubling down the left line to get
Tyler Bruggeman home.
Joe Castrichini had a great outing on the mound, pitching seven innings with seven strikeouts, allowing five hits and no runs.
In the eighth, UMBC tied the game up with three runs, but Longwood relievers
JR Fordham and
Cam Freeman stymied the Retrievers from there.
In the bottom of the ninth, Johnson played the hero. He drove a double down the line for the walk-off winner. It was Longwood's second walk-off win of the season.
Freeman picked up the win for throwing a scoreless top of the ninth. The Longwood pitching staff gave up no walks in nine innings. It was the second time this season Longwood's pitching staff did not surrender a walk in a game. The previous instance was a seven-inning win over NJIT.
Game 2: Longwood 17, UMBC 11
In game two, Longwood got going early, much like they have all season. Longwood went up 2-0 in the first thanks to a two-run home run courtesy of
Jon Howard to right field. It was his second homer of the season.
Longwood widened the gap in the third thanks to an RBI single from Pulliam and an RBI from Jack McMullon on a squeeze play.
UMBC took the lead in the fourth with a big inning. Danny Wyatt doubled in two runs, and the Retrievers snowballed for four more to take a 6-4 lead.
The Lancers then answered in the bottom of the fourth with six runs themselves, with doubles from both Carter and Keels that put Longwood back on top 10-6.
The Retrievers came back in the fifth to cut the lead to 10-8 after an RBI double from Derek Paris and a run from Jesiah Carpe on a wild pitch.
Longwood built on the lead and added six runs to make the score 16-8, thanks to two-RBI knocks from Howard and Brown. Carter and Jones also drove in runs.
UMBC struck again in the seventh when Kyle Eddington got a RBI single, but it didn't take long for the Lancers to respond after Howard came back at the bottom of the inning with a sac fly to bring Jones home.
The Retrievers cut the Longwood lead 17-11 in the top of the eighth with two unearned runs before
Drew Siegner finished it off in the top of the ninth with two strikeouts.
WHAT THEY SAID:
"I thought game one, got a great start out of
Joe Castrichini. They did a great job continuing, and then we put up a three-run inning, and they responded late, so we used some of our high-leverage relievers, and they did a good job keeping them at bay, and then a good job finding a way on base", said Head Coach
Ray Noe. "And getting a guy to second base there for Lucas [Johnson] with two outs. He's a veteran, old grad kid that just understands the game, and I'm really happy for him."
"We had a great approach by the hitters. I thought we did a really good job of being on time for the pitches we were looking for and just valuing first base. We feel pretty confident that the more traffic we get, we hopefully break it open, not necessarily expecting a six-run inning, but we obviously take this, and I thought it was a great response by the offense after giving up the six. They did an unbelievable job of putting the pressure on us, and it felt like our guys sped up a bit, but kudos to them", said Noe. "But you know we've got some defensive stuff we've got to sure up, and we're never satisfied just with wins. We've just got to continue to push forward and fix some of the things that we didn't do well today, but good teams find a way to win, and we absolutely did that."
UP NEXT:
The Lancers head back on the road for a mid-week matchup against Elon in Elon, N.C. on Feb 24, at 4 p.m. This game will be broadcast on Flocollege.
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