Longwood clinched its first road Big South series win since 2019 with an 11-8 victory over North Carolina A&T at World War Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
Jack Schnell and Hunter Gilliam brought the fireworks to lead the Longwood (11-12, 4-1) offense today. The duo combined for three hits, four runs and six RBIs to go along with three home runs between the two of them. The offense as a whole finished with 13 hits, and five Lancers had multi-hit games.
“We’re swinging the bats really well,” said head coach Chad Oxendine. “They’re bringing a great energy every single day. The pitchers are giving us a chance to win, bullpen did a great job today and the offense is really getting going.”
Hayden Harris started the game with a base hit up the middle for the second consecutive game. Hunter Gilliam followed up with a missile that went over the center field fence to give Longwood the 2-0 lead in the first inning for the second time already this series.
Corbin McCloud walked to begin the second inning for Longwood, and Jack Schnell hit his first home run of the season well over the right field fence to extend the Lancers lead to 4-0 in the second.
Anthony Hennings would double down the right field line, and T.J Ash reached on an error for A&T (9-13, 0-2) in the bottom of the second inning. Alex Reyna then singled through the right side bringing Hennings home, and Canyon Brown doubled off the left center wall to bring home Ash and Reyna to bring the Aggies within one going into the third.
The Lancers added to their early lead in the third when Gilliam crossed home after Elliot Dix reached on an error by the second baseman. The bases were loaded after Schnell got hit by a pitch, and a wild pitch scored Gregory Ryan shortly after.
Alex Seaton ripped a double to left center for the Aggies in the home half of the fourth. A Brown single through the right center scored Seaton to bring the game back within two runs.
Ryan and Dix responded immediately in the Lancers half of the fifth with back to back doubles that saw Longwood’s lead go back up to three.
Longwood added three more runs in the top half of the sixth. Wilkinson doubled to right center, and Harris reached on an infield single to put runners on first and second. Michael Peterson then ripped a single through the left side that saw Wilkinson cross home. A double steal executed by Peterson and Harris saw runners at second and third with one out. Gilliam followed up with a sacrifice fly that scored Harris and Ryan singled in Peterson, giving the Lancers a six run lead.
A&T answered with two runs of their own in the sixth. Seaton reached on an error and Reyna singled to give the Aggies two on. Brown followed up with a triple to bring home both baserunners and cut into the Lancers lead, 10-6.
Schnell added to the Lancers lead with a solo home run, his second big shot of the day, in the seventh.
The Aggies, however, would not go away quietly and scored a pair in their half of the seventh. Xavier Bussey singled to lead off the inning, and advanced shortly after on a wild pitch. Ash followed up an Anthony Hennings walk with an RBI single, and Seaton would load the bases after an error by the second baseman. Walk to Brown left them loaded, then Sean Gibbons came on in relief and would quickly eliminate the threat when Brantley grounded out to end the inning and leave the bases loaded.
Kevin Warunek (3-0) picked up his third career win after going five innings. The freshman southpaw surrendered one earned run on six hits and he struck out four. Kevin Gunn relieved Warunek and threw 1.2 innings. Gunn finished with three earned runs and four hits allowed to go along with two walks. Sean Gibbons finished the game off for his first career save. Gibbons gave up no runs on one hit and struck out two in 2.1 innings of work.
“We tip our hat to Sean Gibbons today,” further explained Oxendine on his team’s overall effort in the series-clinching victory. “Coming off of two great outings, and he had another one.”
“We just try to stay as positive as we can, not just as a staff but as a team in general. Earlier in the year we had a bad feel thinking something bad was going to happen. We try to change that mentality and play with a lead. We’ve been fortunate the last few games to take the lead early and start to learn how to play with a lead. Instead of thinking when we’re up three that something bad is going to happen, thinking, hey we’re going to win this game. We’ve done a really good job with that.”
Longwood finishes the series tomorrow against A&T at 1 p.m. with a chance at sweeping the weekend.
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