After all of Divsion I baseball started their season last Friday, Longwood left their opening weekend series against the East Carolina Pirates, last season's American Athletic Conference champion, with an 0-3 record.
Longwood baseball head coach Ryan Mau knew it would be tough sledding on the opening weekend of the 2016 season with a three-game series against defending American Athletic Conference champion East Carolina (ECU). The Pirates showed just why they were a regional-qualifying team last season as they swept the visiting Lancers 11-1, 9-6 and 5-3.
“I knew it was going to be tough and it was going to be a tall order for us, and you could tell Friday night that it was a little much for us,” said Mau.
In the opener on Friday night, senior right-handed pitcher Travis Burnette got the start and went 5.1 innings, striking out five and surrendering five hits and five runs, four earned.
“I know I’m not going to go out there and throw the perfect outing, so really just try and give my team the best chance to win, attack the strike zone and not give up any freebies, and really make them earn everything and just trust the guys behind me,” said Burnette. “It’s really easy to get too amped up especially on the opening night (of the season) against a team like ECU, who is a really talented team.”
Mau added, “Travis (Burnette) gave us exactly what we thought we’d get out of him, which is a pretty quality start. His stuff was good, he was a three pitch guy, (he) challenged the zone and just a couple breaks didn’t go our way, but I thought he threw the ball really well.”
Burnette was cruising along the first few innings before a controversial call on a slide at second forced an errant throw from sophomore shortstop Michael Osinski in the back end of a double play attempt.
The error led to the first two runs of the night for the Pirates, who didn’t look back after that. They added two more in the fourth inning, one in the sixth and seventh innings and put the game away with five runs in the eighth.
Saturday’s contest started in similar fashion as East Carolina got out to an early 5-0 lead after three innings, knocking out Longwood starter Tyler Wirsu after 2.1 innings of work. Wirsu finished the afternoon with three walks, three hits and surrendered five runs, all earned.
The Pirates were able to get out to a 9-0 lead before the Lancers came roaring back in the last two frames.
“Saturday, it looked like we had a similar start, and then it looked like we started to settle in and obviously we did a great job of threatening late and giving them a scare and bringing their closer into the game and having a shot to tie it,” said Mau.
Longwood tacked on one run in the eighth, then five in the top of the ninth until the Pirates to brought in their closer, sophomore right-hander Joe Ingle. In the end, Longwood’s rally fell short bringing the series to 2-0 in favor of ECU.
The Lancers carried their momentum into the finale on Sunday tacking on two early runs off ECU starting senior pitcher Jimmy Boyd.
The Pirates answered immediately putting up three runs off sophomore right-hander Zach Potojecki in the bottom of the first. Potojecki settled in after the first and finished the afternoon with nine hits, five strikeouts and five runs, four earned in 6.2 innings of work.
“Zach Potojecki was outstanding after the first inning,” said Mau. “I thought after he settled down, obviously to give us what he did was great,”
Mau added, “His fastball command was there, and what he does best is he doesn’t give up free passes; no walks, no HBP’s (hits by pitch), he just make you put it in play and kept us in the ball game.”
East Carolina’s offense and bullpen was too much for the Lancers to overcome as they dropped the finale 5-3.
The Lancers were led on offense by senior second baseman C. J. Roth and sophomore utility man Sammy Miller. Roth finished the weekend going 3-of-7 with a walk, run scored and one RBI. Miller finished 3-of-10 with two RBI’s and a run scored.
Roth started the weekend batting ninth, but found himself leading off both Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s a little bit different as the lead off hitter; you set the tone for the team,” said Roth. “At first, there’s a little bit of pressure, but once you settle in it’s a little easier to handle.”
The Lancers were scheduled to play their first home game Richmond Spiders on Tuesday, Feb. 23, but it was ultimately rained out without setting a makeup date.
Longwood will save their first home competition for the weekend against Wagner College, opening on Friday, Feb. 26 at 3 p.m. The Lancers' will be Wagner's first opponents of the season.
