Dukes Take Early Lead, But Drop Middle Game to Seahawks

Saturday, May 8

Wilmington, N.C.

4 p.m.

James Madison University

9-13, 4-7

UNCW

25-16, 9-8

James Madison

UNCW

5/8/2021 7:51:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

WILMINGTON, N.C. – James Madison baseball took an early four-run lead, but UNCW's offense found their groove to take the middle game of the weekend series, 12-5, on Saturday afternoon at Brooks Field.

Nick Stewart started on the mound for JMU, going two-plus innings and striking out three while giving up three earned runs. Chase DeLauter led the Dukes offensively by going 2-for-4 with a run scored, a double, and two RBI's.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Dukes broke the scoring open in the top of the second by loading the bases with one down on a walk, a single, and then a throwing error. Nick Zona then stepped to the play and laced a single to right field to score Michael Morgan and Carson Bell and make it 2-0. The next batter would be DeLauter who would one hop the left field wall to plate Fox Semones and Zona to give the Dukes a 4-0 lead.

UNCW answered immediately by scoring a run on a single in the bottom half of the second to cut the deficit to three. They then took the lead in the third by plating five runs to go up 6-4 after three innings of play. The Dukes made it a one-run game in the fourth as Kyle Novak scored one on a groundout after the Dukes put a pair of runners in scoring position to make it 6-5.

The Seahawks were able to find a groove and answered that JMU run with runs of their own in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings to extend their lead to 12-5. The Dukes were able to get a runner into scoring position in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth innings, but weren't able to bring any around home to score as the game ended 12-5 in favor of the hosts.

GAME NOTES

Conor Hartigan and Chase DeLauter both extended their hit streaks to 11 and 10 games, respectively.
DeLauter has now reached base safely in 18 consecutive games.
Four of the five JMU runs were scored with two outs.

UP NEXT
The two teams look to finish up the series tomorrow, May 9 with the finale scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.