DIAMOND DUKES WIN FOURTH STRAIGHT, DOWN RICHMOND 5-1

Wednesday, April 13

Richmond, Va.

TBA

James Madison University

14-18

Richmond

14-19

James Madison

Richmond

4/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

DIAMOND DUKES WIN FOURTH STRAIGHT, DOWN RICHMOND 5-1

Freshman Ryan Reid improved to 3-2 with a quality start on Wednesday.

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va., April 13, 2005 – James Madison freshman right-hander Ryan Reid (Portland, Maine/Deering) hurled seven strong innings and classmate Kellen Kulbacki (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) homered in the Dukes' 5-1 victory against host Richmond Wednesday afternoon at Pitt Field.

The Dukes have won four in a row and six of their last seven games to up their record to 14-18 overall. The Spiders were beaten for the eighth straight time and fell to 13-19. The win was JMU's first at Richmond since taking the final game of a three-game series, 5-2, in 2001, UR's last season in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Reid gave up one run on six singles and no walks while improving to 3-2 with his second straight win. He fanned six and retired 13 of the last 15 batters he faced.

The Spiders' lone run came in the first inning on a looping single to right field by junior right fielder Andrew Justice (Henderson, N.C./Northern Vance). Junior center fielder Ben Zeskind (Miami, Fla./Miami Palmetto) led off the inning with a liner to center field and freshman first baseman Joe Mahoney (Troy, N.Y./Central Catholic) singled one out later. Justice then dropped in the first of his two hits to tie the game at 1-1.

Reid retired the Spiders in order in the second before giving up back-to-back singles to Zeskind and freshman catcher Alex Hale (Omaha, Neb./Creighton Prep) to start the third. From that point on, the only Spiders to reach came on a Joe White (Richmond, Va./Benedictine) single in the fourth and a hit batter in the seventh.

The Dukes jumped out for a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on successive singles by sophomore shortstop Davis Stoneburner (Richmond, Va./Mills Godwin), junior left fielder Skyler Doom (Yorktown, Va./York), and junior second baseman Michael Cowgill (Lexington, Ky./Henry Clay), the later of which scored Stoneburner.

The game remained tied until junior first baseman Matt Bristow (Richmond, Va./Mills Godwin) and Kulbacki hit back-to-back doubles in the fourth inning. Bristow doubled again in the sixth, and following an error on the play by the Richmond left fielder, freshman designated hitter Joe Lake (Elkridge, Md./Long Reach) raced home for a 3-1 lead.

Kulbacki, who went 3-for-4, stepped up and hit a two-run homer to right for what would be the final scoring of the game. It was the reigning CAA rookie of the week's third homer in six games and his team-leading sixth of the season. His 14 doubles also leads the team and is three shy of tying the JMU freshman record set in 1974 by Mike LaCasse.

Bristow finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Cowgill had two hits in four at bats.

JMU sophomore David Rich (Smithtown, N.Y./Hauppauge) struck out one and surrender one hit in the eighth. Junior Geoff Degener (Cape May, N.J./Lower Cape) worked the ninth and struck out the side after a leadoff single.

The Dukes' pitching staff has limited the opponents to four runs over the last 35 innings for an earned run average of 1.03 during the stretch.

JMU hosts William and Mary in a three-game CAA series this weeken