Dukes Walk Off Virginia Tech on Calabrese’s Single

Wednesday, February 21

Harrisonburg, Va.

3 p.m.

James Madison University

2-3

Virginia Tech

2-2

Virginia Tech

James Madison

2/21/2024 7:53:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Photo Gallery

HARRISONBURG, Va. – In front of the second highest attended home opener in Veterans Memorial Park history, James Madison baseball walked off Virginia Tech on a single off the bat of junior Coleman Calabrese to win 8-7 on Wednesday afternoon. The attendance was announced as 847, only behind 2011's home opening attendance of 923.

The Dukes improved to 2-3, with both wins coming against Power Five opponents. The Hokies fell to an even 2-2. With the home win against VT in 2022, the Dukes now have won back-to-back home games against the Hokies for the first time since 2006-07.

Calabrese was one of four Dukes to record a pair of hits, as he went 2-for-4 with a hit by pitch and two RBI's. Graduate Donovan Burke started on the mound and went six innings while striking out seven and allowing two runs. Sophomore Jaden Kinsler earned the win behind 1.2 scoreless innings of relief.

How It Happened
First Inning
The Dukes manufactured two runs on the board in different ways to take the early lead. Sophomore Mike Mancini led off with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a grounder to second base and then scored on a Ryan Dooley sacrifice fly. Graduate Brendan O'Donnell followed Dooley's sacrifice fly with a home run to make it 2-0.

Second Inning
JMU added two more runs to extend its lead to 4-0 after freshman Ike Schmidly hit a double down the right field line to score two Dukes who were in scoring position. Schmidly tried extending the hit into a triple but was narrowly thrown out at third.

Fifth Inning
Virginia Tech got on the board on an RBI single to bring the deficit to three at 4-1.

Mancini pushed the lead back up to four as he led off the bottom of the inning with his first home run of the season. Calabrese then upped the score to 6-1 as he singled in classmate Fenwick Trimble, but Dooley was thrown out at the plate trying to score behind Trimble.

Sixth Inning
A solo shot from Eddie Micheletti Jr. began a run of six unanswered runs for the Hokies.

Seventh Inning
Virginia Tech brought the game within one, using a two-run homer from Carson DeMartini and an RBI double from Garrett Michel to make it 6-5.

Eighth Inning
The Hokies tied the game at six with an RBI single and then took a 7-6 lead on a sacrifice fly.

JMU wouldn't go down without a fight, loading the bases with no outs to begin the home half of the inning before sophomore Wyatt Peifer laid down a bunt to score the tying run.

Ninth Inning
After a 1-2-3 inning for Kinsler in the top of the ninth, the Dukes came up and loaded the bases with no outs. After a pitching change and a defensive replacement to give VT five infielders, Calabrese stepped up and took a 2-1 pitch the other way into right field to plate the winning run.

Game Notes

The last walk-off win for the Dukes was last season against Louisiana on April 21.
JMU hit .429 (6-for-14) with two outs compared to VT's .200 (2-for-10).
The last time JMU took down an SEC and ACC opponent in the same season was its 39-19 2008 squad that defeated Tennessee and Virginia Tech both on the road.

Up Next
The Dukes welcome Fairfield for their first home series of the season on Feb. 23-25. The opener on Friday begins at 3 p.m. with the game being streamed on ESPN+.