The Lancer baseball squad traveled to East Tennessee State University this past weekend and played a three game series against the Bucs, who won the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2013.
The series was due to be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but because of weather, the clubs played one game Sunday and two games Monday.
Sunday’s match was a back-and-forth struggle between the teams, but Longwood (1-2) was able to pull it out in the end by a score of 6-4.
The Lancers’ No. 1 pitcher Aaron Myers got the win throwing the first eight innings while giving up nine hits and four earned runs with seven strikeouts. Sophomore Travis Burnette came on in the ninth inning to record the save.
On the offensive side, the Lancers came out swinging, led by junior outfielder Brandon Delk, who was 2-for-4 with a two-run home run and two RBI.
ETSU jumped ahead early in the second inning 2-0, but faltered down the stretch as the Lancers outscored them 6-2 in the final seven innings. Senior captains Alex Owens and Matt Dickason added two hits apiece.
Monday sported a double header between the teams and was a much different story than Sunday.
In the first game, ETSU broke open a 3-3 tie in the seventh and eighth, scoring two runs in each, and went on to win, 7-3. Junior Brandon Vick went the first six innings, giving up three earned runs on 10 hits while recording three strikeouts and a walk.
Blake Ream, a sophomore who is known for his hard throwing but struggles to find the zone at times, got the loss in one inning pitched, giving up two earned runs.
The Lancers were at striking distance until the eighth when two key errors plagued any chance of a comeback, allowing the Bucs to increase their lead late.
The second game showed the Lancers weren’t ready to go home, as they jumped out early, 2-0, and led by that margin till the fifth. ETSU answered, scoring two runs off back-to-back doubles, followed by a single from Jeremy Taylor, who was 4-for-6 on the day.
Longwood then quickly bounced back in the sixth, scoring two runs off an abundance of hits, including a triple by Dickason and an RBI double by Kyri Washington.
The Bucs kept the power struggle going, tying the game up with two runs in the seventh. The two teams kept battling and went into extras where ETSU stole a win in the 12th, scoring off a two-out fielding error off an infield popup. Longwood totaled five errors in the last two games and left 18 runners on base over the course of the weekend.
The Lancers take to the road again tonight against in-state rival James Madison University at 4 p.m. before coming home this weekend to host the Marist University Red Foxes in a 4-game series in Farmville.
