DUKES BURNED BY MONARCHS 6-3 IN CAA BASEBALL

Saturday, March 10

Harrisonburg, Va.

1:00 PM

James Madison University

1-12, 0-2

Old Dominion

13-7, 2-0

Old Dominion

James Madison

3/10/2007 5:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va., March 10, 2007 ? Junior David Burns (Jacksonville, Fla./Lake Sumter C.C.) lined a double to the gap with the bases loaded to break a tie and propel Old Dominion University to a 6-3 win over James Madison University in a Colonial Athletic Association baseball game on Saturday afternoon at Long Field/Mauck Stadium.

ODU improved to 13-7 overall and 2-0 in the CAA. The Monarchs won for the seventh time in eight games and for the ninth time in the last 11 games against JMU. The Dukes fell to 1-12 overall, continuing the worst start in program history. They lost their 10^th in a row, tying the 2004 club for the longest losing skid in school history.

Junior Brady Burchill (Hope, N.D./Iowa Western C.C.) allowed just one hit in the last two innings to improve to 2-0 for the Monarchs. Sophomore Anthony Shawler (Chesapeake, Va./Oscar Smith) started for ODU and struck out 12 JMU batters in six innings, allowing three runs on nine hits.

Senior Jacob Cook (Mechanicsville, Va./Lee-Davis) took the loss for the Dukes, allowing three runs on three hits while pitching the final 2 1/3 innings. He struck out four. Sophomore Justin Wood (Dayton, Va./Turner Ashby) gave JMU a quality start with three runs allowed on eight hits with three strikeouts in six innings.

Both teams had 11 hits in the game, none bigger than Burns' bases-clearing double in the ninth. Tyler Belcher (Bristol, Va./Virginia) and Mike Zahm (Omaha, Neb./Iowa Western C.C.) had solo home runs for the Monarchs. Zahm finished 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Chris Keenan (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) was 2-for-4 with a double and scored twice.

Four Dukes had two hits each with Joe Lake (Elkridge, Md./Long Reach) going 2-for-5 with two RBIs in his first start since getting injured in the first game of the season against Ohio State. Junior Kellen Kulbacki (Palmyra, Pa./Hershey), redshirt freshman Steven Caseres (New City, N.Y./St. Joseph's Regional), and freshman Alex Foltz (Mathias, W.Va./East Hardy) each had two hits.

Belcher lined the first pitch he saw from Wood over the wall in left field for his first home run of the season to stake ODU to a 1-0 lead.

JMU got back-to-back doubles by senior Davis Stoneburner (Richmond, Va./Mills Godwin) and Caseres leading off the bottom of the second to set up second and third with no outs. Stoneburner had to hold at second on Caseres' liner to see if it would be caught. Shawler struck out the next two JMU batters before issuing a walk to catcher Dan Santobianco (Wilmington, Del./Brandywine) to load the bases. Shawler came back to strikeout second base Rob Altieri (Greensburg, Pa./Greensburg Central Catholic) for his fifth strikeout in the first two innings to retire the side.

ODU started the top of the third with back-to-back doubles by Keenan and Zahm to take a 2-0 lead. The Monarchs added a third run on a solo blast by Zahm in the fifth.

JMU got that one back quickly with the first career home run by Lake in the bottom of the fifth.

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Foltz got things started with a single to right centerfield for his second hit of the day. Santobianco followed with his first hit of the season on a bouncer to third base. The Dukes then got consecutive RBI singles through the middle by pinch hitter Lee Bujakowski (Hopewell, Va./Hopewell) and Lake to tie the score at 3-3.

JMU had an opportunity to take its firsts lead in the seventh. Kulbacki led off with an opposite-field single to left field. He moved to second on a bunt and reached third on a balk by Toth with one out. Caseres' grounder to first was fielded by Malbon on a slide to keep Kulbacki at third. Toth came back to strike out Townsend, who was retired on his f