Longwood defeated Norfolk State 8-1 in Norfolk on Tuesday. The win marks Longwood’s 18th of the season and surpasses last year’s total of 17 with roughly a month to play.
Longwood were led offensively by Corbin McCloud who finished the day with two hits, a run and an RBI. The Longwood offense as a unit had 12 hits and eight batters who recorded a hit. Hunter Gilliam, Michael Dolberry and Hayden Harris joined McCloud as Lancers who had multi-hit games.
“This game helps get our confidence back,” explained head coach Chad Oxendine. “We had a tough Thursday and Friday against Presbyterian, just getting our confidence back and hitting again.”
The Spartans (11-24) scored first in the third after a couple of scoreless frames. Malcolm Perry walked then stole second, and a couple of sacrifice bunts by Cody Donnell and Brandon Cleveland saw Norfolk State take the early lead.
Longwood (18-20) got two back in the top half of the fifth inning to take their first lead of the game. A Hunter Gilliam single saw Gilliam end up on second after Jack Schnell grounded out to first. Gregory Ryan then singled up the middle to bring Gilliam home. Ryan went to third on a passed ball and eventually scored on a throw to first following a strikeout that wound up in the dirt.
The Lancers extended their lead in the sixth inning. Eric Chorba started the sixth with a single to right field and Michael Dolberry followed up with a single that brought Chorba home after he had stolen second base. Dolberry wound up on third after a failed pick off attempt and stolen base and was hit home after Hayden Harris had a softly hit single land in front of the right fielder.
Longwood went on to score four more runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Passed balls, wild pitches and throwing errors by the Sparts defensively allowed Longwood to add insurance runs throughout the later third of the game.
Noah Wiggins (0-1) started on the mount for Norfolk State and pitched five innings. Wiggins struck out six, gave up seven hits and surrendered three earned runs. Jackson Sanchez and Mike Pyers came on in relief and allowed a combined one earned run and two hits while they struck out two.
Kevin Gunn started for the Lancers on the mound and went three innings. Gunn gave up one run on one hit and two walks while he struck out two. Trey Tiffany (1-0) picked up his first win of the season after going two innings. Tiffany allowed just one walk and struck out one in the seven batters he faced. Cole Taylor, Noah Eaker and Jack Lamb also appeared in the game and continued the trend made by the bullpen and allowed no runs.
“Again man, Campbell’s good,” said Oxendine about this game, and what it means going into the weekend. “They’re 11-1 in conference. They’re going to be the best team we play in conference by far. We needed our confidence back, and we need everything we’ve got to try and compete against the Camels.”
Longwood returns to action this weekend in a Big South series at Campbell University.
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