Completed Event: Baseball at Georgia Southern on May 2, 2025 , Win , 11, to, 1
BASE
Final
James Madison
11
at Georgia Southern
1
James Madison University | Official Athletics Site
Friday, February 28
Harrisonburg, Va.
3 p.m.
James Madison University
5-4
13
vs
6
Fairfield
3-4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Fairfield
1
1
0
0
1
1
2
0
0
6
13
1
James Madison
6
0
1
0
0
0
1
5
X
13
14
1
Hot Bats for Dukes Lead to Win Over Fairfield
2/28/2025 7:31:00 PM | Baseball
HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison baseball used a six-run first inning and a five-run eighth inning to propel past Fairfield, 13-6, at Veterans Memorial Park on Friday afternoon.
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The Dukes improved to 5-4 and have won five of their last six games, while the Stags dropped to 3-4.
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Senior Eli Steadman led the Dukes at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a run scored, a hit-by-pitch and an RBI. The three hits are a season-high for Steadman and tie his career-high. Redshirt freshman Holden McKinney earned his first career win after tossing 0.2 innings with a strikeout. Junior Max Kuhle earned his third save of the season, tossing two innings to end the game with four strikeouts.
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How It Happened
First Inning
Dean Ferrara led off the game with a single for Fairfield, stealing second before scoring on a single to give the Stags a 1-0 lead.
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The Dukes responded with six runs of their own in the home half of the inning, beginning with a pair of bunt single and a walk to load the bases with no outs. A sacrifice fly from sophomore Ike Schmidly put the Dukes on the board and a double from junior Wyatt Peifer followed to make it 2-1. Junior Jack Cannizzaro and senior Coleman Calabrese increased the lead to five, each connecting on first-pitch, two-run base hits to make it 6-1.
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Second Inning
With bases loaded, Fairfield took a run back using an infield single to make it 6-2.
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Third Inning
JMU pushed its lead back to five, as Cannizzaro laid down a squeeze bunt to score Peifer and make it 7-2. Peifer got on with a single and moved to third base from a bank and another single.
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Fifth Inning
Ferrara led off a second inning with a hit, doubling into left field. He then scored in the next at bat off of a single to make it 7-3.
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Sixth Inning
Fairfield scratched a run across without a hitting, putting two runners on from a hit-by-pitch and a walk, moving them into scoring position on a passed ball and then making the score 7-4 on a sacrifice fly.
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Seventh Inning
After a two-base error led off the inning, a deep fly ball landed on the foul line in right field to knock in a run for the Stags. They would score another run to make it 7-6 on a miscommunicated infield hit.
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JMU got a run back as graduate Corey Dowdell pinch hit and took the first pitch he saw 484 feet over the left field wall to make it 8-6.
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Eighth Inning
The Dukes scored five runs in the eighth to make it 13-6, putting the first six batters on base and scoring three runs before the first out was the recorded. The first out also scored a run, as it was a sacrifice fly, preceding Steadman's RBI single to cap off the inning.
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Game Notes
Up Next
The Dukes and Stags meet tomorrow, March 1 in the middle game of the series for a 2 p.m. first pitch at Veterans Memorial Park.
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The Dukes improved to 5-4 and have won five of their last six games, while the Stags dropped to 3-4.
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Senior Eli Steadman led the Dukes at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a run scored, a hit-by-pitch and an RBI. The three hits are a season-high for Steadman and tie his career-high. Redshirt freshman Holden McKinney earned his first career win after tossing 0.2 innings with a strikeout. Junior Max Kuhle earned his third save of the season, tossing two innings to end the game with four strikeouts.
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How It Happened
First Inning
Dean Ferrara led off the game with a single for Fairfield, stealing second before scoring on a single to give the Stags a 1-0 lead.
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The Dukes responded with six runs of their own in the home half of the inning, beginning with a pair of bunt single and a walk to load the bases with no outs. A sacrifice fly from sophomore Ike Schmidly put the Dukes on the board and a double from junior Wyatt Peifer followed to make it 2-1. Junior Jack Cannizzaro and senior Coleman Calabrese increased the lead to five, each connecting on first-pitch, two-run base hits to make it 6-1.
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Second Inning
With bases loaded, Fairfield took a run back using an infield single to make it 6-2.
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Third Inning
JMU pushed its lead back to five, as Cannizzaro laid down a squeeze bunt to score Peifer and make it 7-2. Peifer got on with a single and moved to third base from a bank and another single.
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Fifth Inning
Ferrara led off a second inning with a hit, doubling into left field. He then scored in the next at bat off of a single to make it 7-3.
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Sixth Inning
Fairfield scratched a run across without a hitting, putting two runners on from a hit-by-pitch and a walk, moving them into scoring position on a passed ball and then making the score 7-4 on a sacrifice fly.
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Seventh Inning
After a two-base error led off the inning, a deep fly ball landed on the foul line in right field to knock in a run for the Stags. They would score another run to make it 7-6 on a miscommunicated infield hit.
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JMU got a run back as graduate Corey Dowdell pinch hit and took the first pitch he saw 484 feet over the left field wall to make it 8-6.
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Eighth Inning
The Dukes scored five runs in the eighth to make it 13-6, putting the first six batters on base and scoring three runs before the first out was the recorded. The first out also scored a run, as it was a sacrifice fly, preceding Steadman's RBI single to cap off the inning.
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Game Notes
- Although he gave up his first three runs of the season, Corey Costello pushed his streak without allowing an earned run to 11.1. It is the longest streak for the Dukes since Donovan Burke had a 16-inning streak last season.
- Corey Dowdell's pinch-hit home run was the first pinch-hit homer for the Dukes since Jaylon Lee hit a pinch-hit walk-off homer against Louisiana on April 21, 2023.
- JMU recorded at least 10 runs in a game for the first time this season.
- The Dukes hit .429 (9-for-21) with runners on and .368 (7-for-19) with runners in scoring position.
- The JMU pitching staff combined for 12 strikeouts, the sixth time this season they have thrown at least 10 in a game and third time of at least 12.
- Five Dukes had multi-hit games, led by Eli Steadman's three-hit game. Coleman Calabrese, Maddux Fleck, Kyle Langley and Wyatt Peifer all had two hits apiece.
Up Next
The Dukes and Stags meet tomorrow, March 1 in the middle game of the series for a 2 p.m. first pitch at Veterans Memorial Park.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: McKinney, Holden (1-0)
L: Grabmann, Matthew (2-1)
S: Kuhle, Max (3)
Batting:
2B: Ferrara, Dean 1 ; Bucciero, Matt 1 ; Sturino, Nick 1
RBI: Ferrara, Dean 2 ; Nomura, Luke 1 ; Meth, Sean 1 ; Bucciero, Matt 1 ; Schmalzle, TJ 1
SF: Ferrara, Dean 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Ferrara, Dean 2 ; Meth, Sean 1 ; Kipp, Tyler 1 ; Sturino, Nick 2
SB: Ferrara, Dean 1 ; Schmalzle, TJ 1
HBP: Sturino, Nick 1 ; Colby, Nolan 1
Batting:
2B: Peifer, Wyatt 1 ; Calabrese, Coleman 2
HR: Dowdell, Corey 1
RBI: Langley, Kyle 2 ; Schmidly, Ike 1 ; Dowdell, Corey 1 ; Poole, Nic 1 ; Peifer, Wyatt 2 ; Steadman, Eli 1 ; Cannizzaro, Jack 3 ; Calabrese, Coleman 2
SH: Cannizzaro, Jack 1
SF: Schmidly, Ike 1 ; Peifer, Wyatt 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Langley, Kyle 2 ; Fleck, Maddux 2 ; Dooley, Ryan 1 ; Richter, Colin 1 ; Dowdell, Corey 1 ; Peifer, Wyatt 2 ; Steadman, Eli 1 ; Cannizzaro, Jack 1 ; Calabrese, Coleman 1 ; Moody, Reece 1
SB: Langley, Kyle 1 ; Fleck, Maddux 1 ; Peifer, Wyatt 1 ; Steadman, Eli 2
HBP: Steadman, Eli 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
2
AB
5
R
2
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
2
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
LHP
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INF
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C
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LHP
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INF
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OF
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RHP
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OF
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