A thrilling day of baseball led to two exciting victories for the Longwood Lancers over the Bryant Bulldogs.
Longwood (6-10) earned a pair of wins in different ways on Friday. The first victory was led by redshirt-sophomore Andrew Potojecki’s pitching gem. Potojecki (2-1) finished with seven innings pitched and no runs allowed on three hits to go along with seven strikeouts. The combined shutout effort of Potojecki and Berrier led to a 4-0 victory for the Lancers. Longwood followed the first victory up with a complete effort from top to bottom in game two. Gregory Ryan finished the day with four hits and two RBI across both games.
The Longwood pitching staff struck out 19 batters on the day, and allowed just four runs total, and all three pitchers who made an appearance in game two struck out at least three.
“Obviously it’s exciting to win, we talk about celebrating wins because winnings hard,” said head coach Chad Oxendine following the team’s third win in as many days. “We lost ten in a row at one point but the guys are continuing to believe in the process and they just continue to work hard and do things the right way.”
“We believe everything matters and if you do things the right way the ball will roll our way sooner or later.”
Longwood continued their trend of ‘small ball’ style baseball with runners moving on the base paths all day, no matter the situation. This brand of baseball is one Oxendine has been trying to preach since his arrival.
“We talk about as a team we’re going to play offense this year, we’re going to compete and have better approaches at the plate,” said Oxendine when commented on his small ball style of play. “Guys are buying in and understanding what it means to move runners along. Every run counts as you saw in that last game, every run counts.”
Longwood return to action Sunday following a day off where heavy rain is expected on Saturday.