Miles, the team’s pitching coach who was hired in the summer of 2024, helped lead Longwood baseball to one of its best seasons in team history behind a pitching staff that helped power a 20-win turnaround from 2025.
The Lancers won 34 games, going 34-27, in 2026 and finished as Big South Runners-Up for their best Big South Tournament run in team history. The 20-win improvement tied the team’s best year-over-year improvement, matching the 1991 team that advanced to the Division II World Series.
The Lancer pitching staff combined for 509 strikeouts, which was just two shy of the team record, while also ranking third in the Big South in ERA. The team’s 8.6 strikeouts per nine innings led the Big South, and Longwood led the Big South in fewest walks allowed per nine innings (4.05). That helped the team rank third in the league in WHIP (1.51) and hits allowed per nine innings (9.56).
In the Big South Championship, Longwood pitchers had five straight games, all wins, where a pitcher posted a career-high in innings pitched. In addition, reliever/closer JR Fordham was a Big South All-Tournament Team selection, one of four Lancers selected along with fielders Jon Howard, Ben Pulliam and Jae’dan Carter, also a team-best. The five tournament wins more than doubled the team’s previous best effort.
Fordham and starter Jaxon Lloyd both garnered First-Team All-Big South honors, and freshman starter Brady Hoover also was an All-Freshman Team honoree. It marked the first time in team history the Lancers had a pair of First-Team All-Big South selections. Fordham is third all-time in team history for saves in a season with nine, and his 2.23 ERA ranks seventh all-time.
In his first season at Longwood, Miles helped Guillermo Garcia, Jr. rank fifth in the Big South in strikeouts.
Miles came to Longwood after spending two seasons at Campbell University, where he was the Director of Pitching Development/Camp Coordinator.
In his first season on staff at Campbell, he helped the Camels go 46-15 overall while sweeping through the Big South Tournament and advancing to the Columbia Regional Final.
Prior to Campbell, Miles was the pitching coach for the Morehead City Marlins of the Coastal Plains League in 2022, and he helped the Marlins pitching staff post league best numbers in strikeouts, batting average against, and WHIP.
Miles also spent time on staff at Florence Darlington Tech in the two year ranks, helping the program lead the region in team ERA and strikeouts.
A former Presbyterian standout, Miles is the program’s all-time Division I wins leader with 24 (which is second all-time, regardless of level) and is one of just four pitchers in Blue Hose DI history to record more than 200 strikeouts at the time he graduated. He also was a pitcher for the Morehead City Marlins and was named the CPL Pitcher of the Year.
