Dukes Best Cougars, Weather in 9-3 Series-Opening Win

Friday, April 22

Charleston, S.C.

6 p.m.

James Madison University

16-22, 6-7

College of Charleston

21-16-1, 5-5

James Madison

Col. of Charleston

4/23/2016 2:22:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - James Madison jumped out to a 7-0 lead on Friday night, outlasting a 2-hour, 20-minute rain delay en route to a 9-3 win over College of Charleston in the first game of a three-game Colonial Athletic Association series at Patriots Point.

The Dukes racked up six extra-base hits on the evening as they handed Charleston its sixth defeat in a row and improved to 16-22 (6-7 CAA) on the season. The Cougars dropped to 21-16-1 (5-5 CAA) with the loss.

The two teams made it to the middle of the sixth inning before a storm system rolled in from the south, bringing about weather delay that lasted from 8:00 p.m. to 10:20 p.m.

Senior left-hander Aaron Hoover had one of his best starts of the season disrupted by the weather. Hoover threw the first five frames without allowing a run, striking out five and yielding just three hits before the 2:20 interruption halted his evening. Senior Ben Garner did not surrender a hit across the final two innings, striking out a pair and walking just one en route to his team-high fifth save.

Sophomore center fielder Mike Sciorra racked up a career-high four hits to pace the JMU offense, while senior third baseman Kyle Weston and sophomore first baseman Brett Johnson each added three. Weston and sophomore catcher Zach Tondi each hit home runs on the evening.

JMU poured the offense on early, scoring seven runs across the first five innings to put Charleston in a deep hole. Johnson singled home junior left fielder Ky Parrott in both the first and third innings, with Tondi immediately doubling in Johnson in the third to make it 3-0.

Weston hammered his first homer of the season deep to right field on the second pitch of the fourth inning and senior designated hitter Tyler Carroll added an RBI single later in the frame. Tondi then made it a 6-0 contest with his fifth long ball of the year before Sciorra bounced a full-count RBI single up the middle with two outs.

On the first at-bat after the rain delay, Charleston cut the lead to 7-1 on a solo homer, before adding two in the eighth with its biggest threat of the contest. The Cougars led off the inning with a double and a triple before loading the bases and making it 7-3 on a walk. However, Garner was able to induce a 1-2-3 double play and a soft lineout to first base to extinguish the hosts' final significant threat.

Second baseman Dupree Hart, left fielder Bradley Dixon and catcher Danny Wondrack each had two hits to lead the Cougar offense, while right-hander Nathan Helvey, who entered the evening with a 2.91 ERA, took the loss to fall to 4-4 after yielding seven runs across the first six frames.

QUOTING COACH IKENBERRY
"We really played on all cylinders tonight! I was proud of how hard we played and we got big nights from Kyle Weston, Brett Johnson and Mike Sciorra. Aaron Hoover did an outstanding job on the mound and I thought that if he didn't have the rain delay, he would have gotten us deep into the game. Christian Leckert and Ben Garner were electric late in the game and it was great to have Chad Carroll back in the lineup for us."

SETTING THE TABLE
Junior left fielder Ky Parrott wasted no time in pushing his career-best reached-base streak to 21 games on Friday evening, lacing the first pitch of the game into right field for a single before finishing 2-for-2 with a double and three walks.

Parrott opened the season with a career-best 16-game streak, which ended after an 0-for-1 pinch-hit appearance against Monmouth on March 15. He then began his current streak in the very next contest, meaning the Herndon, Va. native has reached base in 37 of 38 games this season and has done so in all 37 contests in which he has started.

WIN STREAK SNAPPED
Prior to Friday night, the Dukes last took down College of Charleston on March 3, 1996, a 5-2 win on the Cougars' home field. This victory also marked JMU's first over Charleston in seven games since the Cougars joined the Colonial Athletic Association for the 2013-14 athletic season.

UP NEXT
The Dukes and Cougars will continue their three-game series on Saturday afternoon with a 2:30 p.m. contest at Patriots Point, before wrapping up with a 1 p.m. bout on Sunday afternoon. Sunday's contest will have live video coverage provided by the Charleston Sports Network.