CHARLESTON – Charleston Southern overcame an early deficit on Friday evening to defeat Longwood in a high-scoring 15-11 contest at Neilsen Field and clinch the series win.
Kaden Smith finished the game with seven RBIs, the most by a Buc in a single game in nearly a decade.
The Lancers were able to piece together a lot of early offense, tallying ten runs across the first three innings, including six in the first.
The Buccaneers were not fazed, tallying seven of their own between the first two frames.
Kaden Smith had a solo home run in the first and a grand slam in the second. Other runs were scored off a throwing error by the Lancers' third baseman which allowed
Chandler Tuupo to round third and score with the other coming on a solo home run by
AJ Martin. After three innings, the score stood at 10-7.
Charleston Southern pieced together more offense in the fifth and sixth, scoring two in each to eventually find themselves with their first lead of the game. In the fifth,
Kain Collins had an RBI on a fielder's choice with the bases loaded while Tuupo got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded once again. In the sixth,
Lew Rice had an RBI single to tie it at 10-10 and later in the inning a wild pitch allowed for
Lucas Pringle to score from third and give CSU a 11-10 lead.
The lead did not last for long as Longwood had a pair of doubles in the seventh that allowed for them to score one and bring it level at 11 apiece.
In the eighth, Charleston Southern scored four times to regain the lead and hold on for a 15-11 victory. They scored the first on a
Blake Edgmon sacrifice fly which was followed by a
Kain Collins RBI bunt single and
Kaden Smith double that scored both runners on base.
The Buccaneers used five pitchers in the contest.
Brad Grindlinger had the start and was followed by
Hayden Henry with the two splitting the first 1.2 innings, allowing nine runs. After them,
Chris Foster came in for 3.1 frames of work, allowing a hit, a walk and one earned run while striking out four batters. Next out of the bullpen was
Tyler Henshaw, tossing 3.0 innings and picking up the victory to move to 5-1 on the year.
Kyle Lewis pitched the ninth and after hitting the first batter he faced, he retired the next three which included two strikeouts.
Kaden Smith finished the day with a team-high for the season of seven RBIs. This mark is tied for the fourth-most in a single game in Buccaneer history and the most by a CSU player since the 2017 season. Smith becomes just the seventh player in school history to have seven or more RBIs in a single game in program history.
At the plate, the team finished with 10 hits, 10 walks drawn and five hit by pitches. Smith and Pringle tied for the team-lead in hits on the day with three. Rice also had a solid day picking up a pair of hits with Collins and Martin each having one as well. Edgmon drew three walks with Martin and Rice having two apiece.
The two squads will return to Nielsen Field @ CSU Ballpark for the series finale on Saturday. The first pitch for the contest is scheduled for 1 p.m. with the Buccaneers looking for their second conference series sweep of the season.
