Longwood baseball opened up their 2018 campaign this past weekend in a three-game road series against Southeastern Conference powerhouse Auburn Tigers, to which the team lost all three games. The Lancers were only able to score one run off of 13 hits in the series and were outscored 34-1.
With facing a high level opponent comes great difficulty and pressure, which Head Coach Ryan Mau thought the team handled well.
“I thought the guys did a great job. I thought we came out and played a really competitive game on Friday, obviously Saturday got away from us in a hurry and wasn’t the showing we wanted, and I was really interested in how we would respond on Sunday. Then the guys came out and competed really hard and we were in that game,” he said.
The Lancers lost by a score of 6-0 in the opening day game with junior Casey Mize from Auburn taking the win and junior Steven Farkas of Longwood taking the loss.
On Saturday, Auburn’s bats came alive early and often throughout the game and the Lancers again fell behind early and trailed the Tigers by five runs after the first inning and eventually lost 25-1.
In the final game of the series on Sunday, the Lancers played a very competitive game which ended in a 3-0 defeat. The Lancers bullpen played a key role in keeping the game close in the later innings while their offense equaled the amount of hits from Friday's game with five.
“That’s a really good baseball team there. In my 15-plus years of coaching, I have never seen a starting pitching staff have power arms like that who you face three days in a row throwing 94 to 96 miles per hour. Its stuff you see on TV,” said Mau.
In the series the Lancers only committed one error compared to last season’s opening series in which the team committed five.
“To only have one error in three games was an outstanding job by us defensively,” said Mau. “If we can build off of that and keep that momentum going we will be in a lot of ball-games especially if we pitch like we did on Friday and Sunday.”
The Lancers have different players in different positions this season which will look to sure up the defensive errors from last season, including sophomore infielder Nate Blakeney moving from second base to third, sophomore shortstop Antwaun Tucker moving from left field to shortstop, redshirt junior outfielder Jawan Mcallister moving to left field and redshirt senior catcher Mac McCafferty brings senior experience behind the plate.
Mau said he addresses a few batters in every upcoming opponent’s lineup in order to prevent them from coming up with a big at-bat with the game on the line.
“We will put our guys on notice in those situations and tell them that we have to be sharp in those certain situations. We cannot make mistakes to those guys especially, and force the other hitters to try to string things together and beat us that way,” he said.
The keys to success for the Lancers this weekend will be playing solid defense, challenging the strike zone, cutting down on walks and offensively playing well against the same caliber of team, according to Mau.
The Lancers will have an opportunity to capitalize on their momentum as they take on the Niagara Purple Eagles in a three-game home series beginning this Friday, Feb. 23 at 4 p.m.
