The Longwood Lancers defeated the Campbell Fighting Camels 10-5 in the teams’ series finale on Sunday.
Dylan Wilkinson led the game offensively with four hits, three RBI, two doubles a walk and three runs. The Lancers offense has a whole put up 15 hits and reached base a total of 24 times.
“We put Wilkinson in right for the first time I think all season,” said head coach Chad Oxendine. “Man, he is just a grinder. He is a great representative for what Longwood baseball is all about. He is as blue caller as it gets and that’s what we are.”
Longwood (19-22, 9-6) scored first in the top of the first and added four more in the second to take an early five run lead. Jack Schnell singled up the middle to bring home Dylan Wilkinson after he had doubled prior in the first inning.
Hunter Gilliam opened up the second with a ground rule double and wound up on third after a wild pitch. Michael Dolberry then reached on a sac bunt on a squeeze play to score Gilliam and Grant Melnyk followed up with a single to advance Dolberry to third. Hayden Harris loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch and Wilkinson put the icing on the cake with a two out double that cleared the bases.
The Fighting Camels (24-14, 13-2) answered with four runs in the second and one in the third to tie the game. Connor Denning singled to start the rally and Drake Pierson ripped a double down the third base line to bring home Denning. After Pierson advanced to third on a balk and Waldy Arias walked, respectively, Tyler Halstead hit an RBI bunt single down the first base line. Jarrod Belbin added to the tally with an RBI single that scored Pierson.
Denning started the third with a triple and Pierson grounded out to shortstop to bring Denning home and tie the game going into the fourth.
The Lancers responded by putting up one run in the fourth and three in the fifth.Wilkinson recorded another hit with a bunt single and Michael Peterson followed up with a single through the left side. Schnell walked to load the bases and a passed ball scored Wilkinson from third.
In the fifth, Dolberry was hit by a pitch and Melnyk singled up the middle on a hit-and-run to put runners on the corners. After a Melnyk stolen base, Wilkinson walked and all the runners advanced with a wild pitch, which included Dolberry scoring from third. Peterson was hit by a pitch to reload the bases and a fielding error by the Camels right fielder saw two more runs come home.
Schnell hit a two-out, insurance home-run over the left field fence in the top of seventh to extend the Longwood lead to five.
Andrew Melnyk started on the mound for Longwood and allowed four runs on five hits in 1.2 innings. Dominick D’Ercole (2-2) came on in relief and allowed one run on three hits in 3.1 innings en route to his second win of the season. Michael Tolson pitched the final part of the game and earned his fourth save of the year. Tolson surrendered no runs, allowed just one walk and struck out three.
“Tolson is just talented,” Oxendine said. “He has unbelievable talent. He needs to continue to work and throw strikes, when he throws strikes they can’t hit them and he threw a lot of strikes today. He was confident in his ability and he was fired up all day and he put up some zereo’s for us in what was a big win.”
Aaron Rund started for Campbell and surrendered five runs on six hits in 1.2 innings. Ryan Chasse (1-1) received the loss after he pitched the next 2.2 innings and gave up one earned run on four hits and two walks. The Fighting Camels used six total pitchers on the afternoon and struck out eight batters but surrendered seven earned runs as a staff.
“We talked about belief,” said Oxendine, on what he told the team after the series finale victory. “Just believe in each other, believe the process, the program and we talk about being Blue Collar, about using what we have and not what we don’t have as a crutch. We always talk about the grind and embracing Longwood and each other. It came up today and they did not want to go home 0-3 man so it was awesome.”
Longwood return to action Tuesday when they travel to Fairfax to play George Mason in a midweek matchup.
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