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Sunday, July 27, 2025

Longwood Baseball Looks to Extend Three-game Winning Streak

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Those present at the Longwood versus Virginia Military Institute (VMI) baseball game last Wednesday night saw a preview of future Big South rivals going at it. Winning their third straight game and improving their record to 18-16, the Longwood men's baseball team beat future conference rival VMI 8-6, knocking in runs in five out of nine innings.

The Lancers' bats were hot in the first inning. Captain Matt Dickason walked to open the game, later moving to second on a single from sophomore Scott Burkett. Later that inning, Burkett would score off an RBI single from junior Justin Lacy. Then, with two men on, senior and co-captain Robby Newman hit a three-run home run to right field, his tenth of the season and the most on the team this season.

 

The team took an early 4-0 lead. The Lancers slowly added to their lead, scoring one off of a Newman double in the second and one off of a freshman Brandon Delk solo home run in the third. Delk added his second home run of the game (third of the season) during the fifth inning to left field, giving the team a 7-1 lead. The lead would diminish, however, as VMI made it home five times in innings six, seven and nine to cut Longwood's lead to one, 7-6.

Winning four games this season at their final at bat, the Lancers prevented a comeback in the ninth after VMI edged a run closer. Freshman Joey Varaksa hit a solo home run in the ninth with one out to extend Longwood's lead to two. The much needed, late game solo blast to center was freshman Varaksa's first collegiate home run. Freshmen Brandon Vick earned his fifth win of the season, while freshman Aaron Myers pitched two scoreless innings of middle relief. Senior Matt Gwaltney pitched the final two innings, allowing one run but nonetheless earning his second save.

 

The Longwood men's baseball team is 12-11 at home and 6-5 on the road. Looking to attain their 31st 20-win campaign, the Lancers are completely booked this week, playing six games that began last night against VCU at 7 p.m. in Farmville. In that game, the Lancers fell by a final score of 9-0 at Charles Buddy Bolding Stadium. Tonight, the Lancers will play on the road at George Mason. Mason looks to avenge their 7-9 loss to Longwood earlier this season. The Patriots are an overall 25-12 and 11-7 in the Colonial Athletic Conference, coming off a twogame win streak against Northeastern University.

This weekend, the Lancers have a four-game series against North Carolina A&T. On Saturday, the Lancers face the A&T Aggies in a double-header at home, and then travel to War Memorial Stadium in North Carolina on Sunday to play them again in a second doubleheader.

Last season, Longwood and North Carolina A&T split the four-game series, each winning two. The series also included a Lancer 7-6 victory in extra innings. Batting around .300 through their 34 games, the Lancers have scored an average of six runs a game. The only player above a .400 (.417) batting average, junior Justin Lacy comes into the week with five home runs and 25 RBI. Newman follows closely with a team-high of 10 home runs and a staggering 38 RBI.

 

This past week, however, Burkett and Delk were the only other players to hit above .300. That being said, sophomore Alex Owens (batting .299), freshman Varaksa (.294) and sophomore Dickason (.283) hover close by the mark. Pitching-wise, the Lancers have struckout 198 batters through 285 innings.

Freshman Tyler Wislocki and sophomore Ryan Schubert lead Longwood's pitching with 3.00 earned run averages and a total of 24 strikeouts. Junior Kyler Morgan (3.63 ERA) and senior Matt Gwaltney have accumulated over 60 strikeouts this season while freshmen Vick and Myers have accumulated a total of six wins and only one loss between the two of them.

The Longwood men's baseball team will look to continue their three-game winning streak this week and attain another 20-win season, now somewhat of a tradition. The team looks prepared to finish strongly and enter their 2012-13 season even stronger within the confines of the Big South Conference.

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