Following a disappointing
loss to James Madison in
10 innings last week, the
Lancer baseball squad
bounced back with a three
game sweep of GardnerWebb this past weekend
and a key win against
George Mason on Tuesday.
After four straight wins,
the Lancers are now back to
.500 (21-21) and sitting at a
solid 10-8 in Big South play.
The catalyst for the Lancers
has been sophomore
Brandon Vick, who is now
4-1 with an ERA just above
one in six starts in the Big
South.
“The Big South Conference
requires the very best out
of every athlete. Success
doesn’t come easy, but
Brandon has worked hard,
and now it is paying off,”
said Head Coach Buddy
Bolding.
After giving up three runs
off three errors in the first
two innings of his last start,
it wasn’t looking good for
the 6-foot-5 sophomore
left-hander. But he battled
back, kept his team in the
game and the Lancers
stole (no pun intended)
Saturday’s contest, which
also happened to be Buddy
Bolding Day. Bolding, who
will retire at season’s end,
was honored before the
game for his 35 years of
service to Longwood.
“I’ve only had three
or four players in the
history of this program
who were this good by
their sophomore year,”
said Bolding. “I saw that
Brandon had competitive
fire, mentality and talent.
All I wanted him to learn
was that he was the master
of the mound, and I think
he has done that as well.”
At this point in his career,
it is hard to say he hasn’t.
After an impressive sixwin freshman campaign in
2012, he and Senior Kyler
Morgan have led the 2013
team’s young pitching staff
to an astounding amount
of impressive wins.
Bolding made it known
that though the team is
happy with the sweep
this past weekend, and
he is pleased with Vick’s
pitching thus far, their
task is not yet completed.
“We are very glad that we
won these past few games,
and Vick has been able to
perform, but we need to
keep it going and not get
too happy. There is still
work to be done,” he said.
He went on to say, “This
past weekend, our boys
were mentally tougher
than the competition. Had
we not been mentally
tougher, we would have
been plastered in the
second game because we
came out looking awful but
battled back and won the
game.”
Bolding said that
motivation has been
the driving force for the
Lancers from the start of
the season and that it will
continue to be until the
very last game.
“One of my captains
decided at the beginning
of the season to print out
the Big South preseason
rankings with us pictured
last and put one in every
kid’s locker. That has been
driving them since day
one,” said Bolding. “We
can play with anybody, I
knew it the whole time;
I’m just glad these boys are
proving it on the field.”
He added, “This
conference thought we
were going to be the
doormat of the league and
that we would get stepped
on by everybody. But what
they didn’t know is that
this program was built
on tough-minded young
men.”
Bolding believes that this
past weekend could have
been one of the defining
moments of the season
thus far.
“We fought so hard this
weekend,” he said. “I’m
proud of this team. I think
everyone knew that this
was the weekend to put
up or shut up, and we
definitely put up.”
The Lancers are off for
the next nine days for
finals but host in-state rival
Radford next weekend in
their second-to-last Big
South series of the year.