James Madison baseball drops season finale at UNCW 5-1

Casey Golden’s third-inning homer gave UNCW the early lead and Evan Phillips allowed one run in seven innings in a 5-1 decision over James Madison in a Colonial Athletic Association baseball game on Saturday in the regular season finale at Brooks Field.

The game closed the 18-year JMU career for Head Coach Spanky McFarland, who finished 521-483-4 with the Diamond Dukes heading into retirement.

Madison closed the 2015 campaign at 18-33 overall and 6-18 in the CAA. UNCW improved to 36-16 overall and 18-5 in the league heading into next week’s CAA tournament as the second seed.

Phillips struck out six and surrendered five hits in seven innings of work to improve to 2-1. Redshirt sophomore Brandon Withers took the loss for JMU after allowing three runs in three innings of relief with four strikeouts. Freshman Tucker McCoy earned the start and worked two scoreless frames.

Redshirt sophomore Brett Johnson had two hits for the Dukes, including his eighth home run of the season to account for JMU’s lone run. Redshirt junior Chad Carroll added two singles to finish as the team’s leader in multiple-hit games with 18.

In addition to Golden’s two-run shot, his sixth, Corey Dick also hit his sixth homer as part of his two hits for the Seahawks. Terence Connelly also had two hits with an RBI and a walk.

After McCoy registered a strikeout to end a threat in the second, Withers relieved in the third and surrendered a two-run home run to Golden for the 2-0 lead for the Seahawks.

In the fifth, the Seahawks put runners on the corners with no outs on a leadoff walk and a single. Dunlap then grounded into a double play to bring in the third run of the game for UNCW.

After working through a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the sixth, JMU picked up its first run on Johnson’s solo shot in the seventh to make it 3-1.

UNCW got the run right back in the bottom of the frame as Corey Dick homered to right to make it 4-1. The Seahawks kept the inning going as Thorburn hit a pinch-hit single, stole second and scored on Connelly’s single to center field.