CHARLESTON – The Buccaneers used an outpouring of scoring on Saturday to blow past Longwood and get the series sweep over the Lancers. Charleston Southern's offense scored ten during the third inning to put the game out of reach for the visitors and claim the game at 17-6 in seven innings.
The Buccaneers now move to over .500 in conference play as they stand at 8-7 in Big South play. After getting swept in each of their first two weekends to High Point and USC Upstate, CSU has gone on to win eight of their past nine contests in league play. They first took two of three against Winthrop, swept Radford on the road and now swept Longwood as well.
Longwood had the first run of the game, scoring on a sacrifice fly in the top of the second. The lead was short lived as
Lucas Pringle had a two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning for a 2-1 edge. Longwood smashed an RBI single up the middle in the top of the third to bring it level at three apiece.
In the bottom of the third, Charleston Southern scored ten runs, having ten consecutive batters reach safely.
Kaden Smith was the first runner to score as he was brought home on a single by
AJ Martin. Pringle was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score the next.
Lew Rice and
Brandon Phillips each had two RBI base hits to keep the party going. Smith then stepped up to the plate again, this time with the bases loaded and smashed his second grand slam in the past two days and fourth home run of the weekend, pushing the score to 12-2.
In the fourth, the Bucs stretched their lead out even further with
Blake Edgmon and Smith each having a sacrifice flyout. Longwood scored three in the top of the sixth to bring the game back within single digits at 14-5.
Charleston Southern's offense pushed the lead right back to double digits in the bottom of the sixth. Phillips and
Alex Diaz each had an RBI single while
Tyler Wright was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score another. Longwood's offense got their final run of the day in the top of the seventh, making it 17-6, but not cutting into their deficit enough to avoid the 10-run difference to end the game via run rule.
The Buccaneers used four different pitchers in the contest.
Tait Robertson had the start and allowed one run to score in his 1.1 innings of work.
Ryan DuSang was next out and picked up the victory with his 2.2 frames of work, allowing one earned run and striking out five batters.
Parks Ledwell tossed 2.0 innings while
Joel Rodriguez had the final 1.0. As a staff, they allowed just three walks and one hit batter.
At the plate, Phillips and Smith led the team in hits with two on the day. Smith tallied a team-high five RBIs while Pringle and Phillips each had three. The team drew eight walks and were hit by pitches on seven different occasions.
Charleston Southern has their next five contests on the road with the stretch to get started with a contest at The Citadel on Tuesday, April 22 at 6 p.m. with the game to be available live on ESPN+.
