After a three game series over the past weekend, including a double-header on Saturday, Longwood (17-19, 11-4) finished the weekend with two wins and one loss to Campbell (20-20, 3-11).
"It's big for us to take two-of-three this weekend," said senior catcher Megan Baltzell to the Longwood Athletics official website. "It's one of our goals every year to win each conference series."
The 2-1 loss after Saturday's second game ended the Lancers eight game winning streak.
Despite earning the first run of the game off of Baltzell’s home run in the fourth inning--the team was 5-4 going into the game with one home run scored-- Campbell returned with two homes of their own in the fifth and seventh innings from freshman left fielder Chandler Patterson and senior third baseman Bruce.
"I thought we came out flat today," said Head Coach Kathy Riley to the Longwood Athletics official website. "I felt we were fortunate to come out with a win in the first game, but we just didn't get enough hits in either game."
Over the course of the weekend, Baltzell added another two homers to her total, putting her within two of the all-time career record set by outfielder/shortstop Jessica Moore of Liberty in 2006. She also tallied five runs and four RBIs.
Sophomore utility Justina Augustine also earned two home runs, one in each win, giving her three RBIs overall.
Her contributions, along with those of senior outfielder Chelsea Sciacca in Saturday’s first match and freshman second baseman Kelsey Sweeney on Sunday, each with one home run and four RBIs apiece, gave Longwood the edge.
"I knew they were pitching to me on the outside part of the plate, because that's all they had been throwing to me," Sciacca said after Saturday’s game to the Longwood Athletics official website. "I just tried to sit back and drive it to the left side."
"It was really important for me to step up and help my team get a big win today," Sweeney said after Sunday to the Longwood Athletics official website. "I was struggling a little in the series, and it was really important to me to step up and get it done."
In both wins, Campbell out-hit the Lancers, first 8-4 then 11-7, led by Patterson.
”I feel fortunate for us to win two-of-three games, especially since we were out-hit in all three games of the series," said Riley to the Longwood Athletics official website. "We were able to come back in several critical situations that earlier in the year we didn't come back from, so we're starting to see some growth in that area."
Coming off throwing her second no-hitter of the season against Liberty, the series saw sophomore pitcher Elizabeth McCarthy throw 20 straight innings. Sunday marked her sixth complete game of the season.
Her first game Sunday ended with her one strikeout shy of tying her season-high (10). Building from that game, McCarthy threw 17 strikeouts in total and earned a 3.44 ERA over those three games.
McCarthy finished the weekend giving up 24 hits, 10 runs and 10 errors.
Longwood will face the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on April 8 before hosting their next conference series this weekend against the Runnin’ Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb University.
