After failing to qualify for the Big South conference tournament a year ago, Head Coach Ryan Mau and his Longwood baseball team enter the final month of the regular season on the outside looking in for a chance to play postseason baseball.
Their slow start was deemed their achilles' heel, according to Mau, as they dropped five of their first seven games to begin the season.
With 23 regular season games left on the schedule, the goal for the Lancers, according to Mau, is to reach the conference tournament, an accomplishment they were not able to achieve last season.
“It’s going to take every single one of us pulling the rope, and if someone falls due to an injury or whatever, the next guy picks it up and pulls it a little bit more,” said head coach Ryan Mau. "The guys are starting to come around now, and I just hope it’s enough momentum and enough time left to make our run and make the conference tournament."
So far this season, the Lancers have showed glimmers of success but have yet to break through, winning three of their last five games.
“I think we’ve been just inconsistent. Our starting pitching has been really solid, and other times its disappeared on us. Sometimes offensively we have some things going, but inconsistent on who it is which makes it difficult to string innings together as far as the lineup is concerned,” Mau said. "At times it’s been solid pitching, at times it’s been putting up runs, but not being consistent enough in those two facets."
Senior center fielder Sammy Miller currently leads the Lancers in batting average with a stellar .301 with more than half of the season over. Although batting average is important to him, Miller says there are more important aspects of his game to focus on.
“It means something to me, but not too much," Miller said. "Being the leadoff hitter, it’s my job to get on base and do that kind of thing, so it means a lot. But overall, we would like to end up winning more games than we are right now."
In Tuesday's game at Virginia Military Institute, Miller went four-for-five with a grand slam to propel the Lancers to an 11-9 victory, avenging their loss to the Keydets on Apr. 3 earlier this season.
Mau praised Miller's efforts in keeping the Lancers postseason hopes alive, saying his individual and team play has come together recently.
“Especially being our captain and having high expectations for him, (Miller) had a really slow start for us, and our team felt that, but he did a really good job of just understanding what his capabilities are. Now you’re seeing it start to come out over these past three weeks,” Mau said.
The Lancers next chance to chase their goal will come this upcoming weekend against UNC Asheville in a three game series starting Friday, April 13 at 6 p.m. at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
The Longwood men’s baseball team joins each other on the field after their victory against Niagara 5-4.
Right-handed pitcher, Tyler Morgan sends the baseball flying across home plate.
Jawan McAllister lays down a perfect bunt during the home game versus Niagara on February 24.
