HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison baseball chipped at the lead, but an eight-run deficit against Marshall was too much to overcome as it fell, 11-7, on Sunday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Park.
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The Dukes dropped to 30-20 overall and 15-12 in Sun Belt Conference play. The Thundering Herd improved to 17-34 (9-18 Sun Belt).
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Graduate
Brendan O'Donnell finished out a fantastic weekend by going 3-for-4 with a double to lead JMU at the plate. Senior
Ryan Murphy got the start on the mound for JMU and went 2.1 innings with a strikeout.
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How It Happened
Second Inning
A homer three batters into the inning provided Marshall with a 3-0 lead.
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Junior
Jason Schiavone got a run back for JMU as he led off the bottom half of the inning with his 16
th long ball of the season to make it 3-1.
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Third Inning
Marshall put up a six-spot in the third, starting the scoring with a single. A pair of two-run homers, one being Elijah Vogelsong's second homer of the day, added four runs with the inning being capped off by a double to make it 9-1.
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JMU struck for two in their half of the inning, as sophomore
Mike Mancini hit a two-run single to make it 9-3 before being thrown out at second trying to extend the hit into a double.
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Fifth Inning
A groundout scored a 10
th run for Marshall and extended their lead to seven at 10-3.
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The Dukes continued to chip away at the deficit, responding with three runs in the fifth. Mancini and junior
Fenwick Trimble executed a double steal while on the corners for Trimble to trot home. A double from Schiavone and a groundout from junior
Coleman Calabrese scored two more runs to make it 10-6.
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Seventh Inning
The fourth homer of the day for Marshall added a run on the board for the visitors and made the score 11-6.
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Eighth Inning
Redshirt junior
Jacob Steinberg brought a run home on a pinch hit double to make it 11-7 after Calabrese singled to lead off and made it to third.
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Up Next
The Dukes will hit the road for the final four games of the season, first taking on Virginia Tech at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14 before finishing out regular season at Troy on May 16-18.
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