The Longwood Lancers won the series finale against Presbyterian College 15-6 to avoid the sweep and stay in the top three in the Big South.
Gregory Ryan led the Lancers offensively after reaching base a total of five times. Ryan hit a no-doubt blast and recorded four RBI’s to go along with three runs on the afternoon.
“I’ve been pulling off the ball lately, so coach and I did some off-center toss before (the game) to get me ready to hit it backside and it paid off today,” explained Ryan on his preparation going into today’s game. “This builds momentum going into the week. We have a midweek we need to worry about and then onto Campbell and Upstate (in conference play) those are two good teams and we’re looking to compete with them and take on some wins.”
“Greg was out here at 9:30 this morning, first one out here, he texted me after yesterday’s game asking ‘can we hit a little more?'” commented Chad Oxendine on Ryan’s performance. “He’s a guy that’s going to keep working. As you know, in baseball if you put the work in and do things the right way the ball will roll your way for you, and he put in a lot of swings this morning and have been grinding. We need him, he’s a big part of our offence and we need hits like that.”
The Blue Hose scored in the first inning for the third consecutive game when Jeremiah Boyd ripped a double that saw Dalton Reeves and Jack Gorman.
Longwood responded immediately in the bottom of the first after Michael Peterson singled and stole second before winding up on third following a throwing error by the catcher. The Lancers then scored seven runs in the third and fourth innings combined to take a six-run lead. Walks, wild pitches and passed balls were the story in both innings as Longwood walked on loaded bases situations numerous times.
Presbyterian got three back in the fifth after a two-out rally was started by a Jay Weatherington single. Eric Toth followed up with a single and Dalton Reeves walked to load the bases. Jeremiah Boyd then ripped a double off the center field fence that scored two. Brody Fahr singled to right field and Reeves scored, a Longwood relay stopped Boyd from scoring from second and ended the rally.
The Lancers would respond in the sixth inning after Ryan ripped a leadoff home-run over the left field fence. Drayven Kowalski then singled, Eric Chorba walked and Michael Dolberry hit a bunt single to load the bases again. A wild pitch scored Kowalski, and Hayden Harris then walked before Michael Peterson hit a sacrifice fly to give Longwood the six run lead right back.
The Lancers would go on to score four more in the eighth. Jim White took a full-count walk to score Chorba and Ryan doubled to clear the bases and give Longwood the 10 run lead.
The Blue Hose got one back in the top of the ninth when Ryan Outz hit a pinch-hit solo homer.
The Longwood offense walked 16 times and recorded nine hits in the offensive Saturday series finale.
Andrew Melnyk (2-2) got the start and pitched five innings on his way to his second victory of the season. Melnyk finished with five earned runs and six hits while he struck out four. Logan Berrier pitched a near perfect three innings where he gave up just one hit and struck out five. Michael Tolson pitched the ninth and gave up the solo shot and struck out two of three.
Colbey Klepper (1-3) started for Presbyterian and picked up the loss after he allowed four runs and two hits in 2.1 innings. The Blue Hose used six relief pitchers in the contest and they walked 13 batters and surrendered 11 runs on seven hits.
“As we talked about yesterday we’ve been chasing,” said head coach Chad Oxendine on his teams discipline at the plate today versus the rest of the series. “Today we had our weight back and held back and tried to go the other way. We did that a lot at batting practice this week, working on our two strike approach and hitting it the other way.”
The Lancers return to action Tuesday when they take on Norfolk State at 4 p.m.
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