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The Rotunda
Wednesday, February 19, 2025

After G-WU Sweep, Baseball in Good Position

 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.