Eight of the James Madison baseball team’s nine starters tallied at least one hit on Saturday evening as the Dukes rolled to a 16-8 victory over Delaware in Colonial Athletic Association action at Eagle Field at Veterans Memorial Park.
JMU tallied a season-high 18 hits in its highest-scoring game of the year, including eight extra-base hits from six different players, as it improved to 12-16 (2-6 CAA) on the season. The Blue Hens racked up five runs in the first innings, but did not score again until the top of the eighth, allowing the Dukes to rally and drop Delaware to 10-12 (2-6 CAA).
Junior third baseman Kyle Weston had a perfect night at the plate for JMU, going 4-for-4 with a triple and a walk, while scoring four runs. Weston is the second Duke in as many nights to cross the plate four times after freshman second baseman Kyle McPherson accomplished the feat in Friday night’s contest.
McPherson had a stellar Saturday night as well, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles while driving in a run and scoring another. Redshirt junior shortstop Chad Carroll hit his first home run in almost a month for JMU, notching a two-run blast in a 2-for-3 evening that saw him score three times and drive in three runs.
Sophomore left fielder Ky Parrott also homered for the second game in a row, hammering a three-run shot to right field in the third inning, while junior catcher Bobby San Martin and senior right fielder Kevin Husum chipped in a pair of hits each.
Delaware jumped out to an early lead for the second night in a row, using six hits to plate five runs in the top of the first in a rally that included a pair of doubles and a two-run home run to right field.
The Dukes struck back in the bottom of the second with four runs of their own on five hits, including a two-RBI single from freshman first baseman Brett Johnson that cut the lead to 5-4 and put JMU within one before its big third inning.
McPherson led off the third with a seven-pitch walk before San Martin lashed his second double in as many innings to score him all the way from first. After Weston pulled a single through the left side and moved to second on an error, freshman center fielder Michael Sciorra slapped the first pitch he saw through the right side to score both runners and put JMU up 7-5.
Husum followed Sciorra with a single, moving the freshman to third, and immediately stole second, allowing Sciorra to score on the throw and make it 8-5. After Carroll was plunked on a 3-1 pitch to put runners on first and second, Parrott blasted a 2-2 fastball over the scoreboard in right field to cap the inning and give the Dukes an 11-5 lead.
JMU tacked on two more in the fourth, when Carroll hit a two-run homer all the way to the batter’s eye in center field, and one more in the seventh. Delaware picked up three runs in the top of the eighth that cut the lead to 14-8, but the Dukes cruised down the stretch to a victory after scoring two in the bottom of the frame on back-to-back triples from Weston and Sciorra and a single from Carroll.
Junior left-hander Aaron Hoover got the win for JMU to improve to 3-1 on the year, throwing four shutout innings after the five-run first and striking out six batters. Sophomore right-hander Brandon Withers closed out the remaining four innings, striking out a pair and yielding two earned runs en route to his first save of the season.
Chad Martin took the loss for Delaware, falling to 1-3 in 2015. None of the four Blue Hen pitchers lasted longer than 3.1 innings and none yielded less than a run.
JMU and Delaware will wrap up their three-game series on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is currently scheduled for 2 p.m.
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