Longwood University's softball team improved their record to 7-1 after winning four games this past weekend and claiming the Lancer Lead-Off title. These four home games, tacked on to a tournament title they won their first weekend, give the Lancers a six-game winning streak.
Playing a double header against UMBC on Friday, Longwood would only need five innings to sweep past UMBC in the first game, displaying a three-run home run from Jordan Cox and a tworun home run from Marci Christian. Both players would rack up 11 RBI.
Accompanied by Longwood's two home knocks and scoring five of their nine runs, Cox (1-1, 3 RBI) contributed an RBI single and Kori Nishitomi (1-2, 2 RBI) played a two-run scoring single. Softball's dominance on the field and at the plate led to a five-inning game as opposed to seven innings by rule of slaughter. Junior Brooke Short would earn a complete game pitching victory in game one, recording six strikeouts and yielding only one walk. Longwood won 9-0.
Longwood scored nine runs again in their second victory against UMBC on Friday. UMBC, scoring three runs in the first, would take an early lead. Longwood retaliated with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third. All three runs had come from Cox's (1-2, RBI) second three-run home run of the day.
With two innings remaining, the Gaels scored two more, but soon after LU scored six more runs stemming from a Nishitomi (2-4, RBI) RBI triple and a Christian (2-2) three-run home run. UMBC, now trailing 9-5, would only be able to add three more, ending the game at 9-8 with Longwood on top. Short pitched a complete game five innings, striking out one and only allowing two earned runs. Winning both games in the double header the previous day, softball continued their winning streak on Saturday with victories over St. John's University and Seton Hall. Megan Baltzell (3-3) started the scoring against St. John's in the first when driven home by Short's single.
Marci Christian then led off the second inning for the Lancers with a solo home run, followed by a Courtney Long (2-2, 3 RBI) walk and a Katie Shinrock (1-3, RBI) RBI single to score Long. Long would later go on to supply LU with a three-run home run in the third. In the bottom of the fifth, Longwood ended the game early, scoring three more runs and reaching the eight-run rule. The Lancers began the day 5-1 and ended the day 7-1.
Longwood's success continued into their fourth and final game of the weekend against Seton Hall. Baltzell, going 3-3 and 3-4 at the plate in the last two games, led off with a solo home run in the first. In the third, the Lancers added five more runs as Ashley Kramer provided an RBI single immediately before a three-run triple by Christian. LU would go on to score two more runs in the fourth and the fifth from Kramer and Bressin's singles. The game would end 8-5, with Longwood on top again. Freshman Libby Morris pitched a complete game with seven innings, recording four strikeouts and allowing five runs.
The Lancers will look to add on to their six-game win streak this Wednesday, Feb. 22 in Chapel Hill, N.C. The game is set to start at 3 p.m.
