JMU baseball defeats Marshall in 10 innings, 8-5

Senior third baseman Ty McFarland (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) smacked a two-run, tie-breaking home run in the 10^th inning to propel JMU to an 8-5 victory over Marshall early Friday in the first game of the Caravelle Resort Tournament at TicketReturn.com Field at Pelicans Stadium.

JMU improved to 5-5 overall with its first extra-innings game since a 5-3 win at George Washington on April 27, 2013. MU fell to 3-5.

Senior right-hander Trent Cundiff (Roanoke, Va./Northside) picked up the win after recovering from allowing an unearned run in the ninth. He worked 2 2/3 innings overall. Junior Kevin Husum (Panama City, Fla./Bay) worked the 10^th with two strikeouts for his first JMU save.

JMU led 4-0 going into the bottom half of the seventh thanks to the dominant start of junior Patrick Toohers (Florham Park, N.J./Seton Hall Prep). The right-hander limited the Herd to two hits through six shutout innings while striking out seven, one shy of his career high.

After a pitching change, Marshall struck for four runs in the seventh to quickly tie it before Cundiff escaped with the tie. JMU reclaimed the lead in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by senior second baseman Conner Brown (Richmond, Va./Godwin), but the Herd tied it in the bottom of the ninth with the aid of a leadoff error. A groundout and a bunt pushed the runner to third with one out and a sacrifice fly by Chase Vogelbach plated the run without the aid of a hit.

In the 10^th, Husum led off like Marshall did by reaching on an error. That set the stage for McFarland’s two-run, go-ahead blast to right field for his fifth round tripper of the season. He entered the day leading the nation with 15 runs, one back of the national lead in home runs and two back of the national lead in total bases with 32. Junior left fielderChad Carroll (Oakton, Va./Oakton) added an RBI single to score Brown to make it 8-5 before Husum’s save in the bottom of the frame.

Madison’s season high of 15 hits was led by sophomore catcher Bobby San Martin (Fairfax, Va./Centreville), who went 4-for-4 with a run and an RBI to double his previous career best for hits in a game. Husum singled, doubled, walked, scored twice and drove in a run in the leadoff spot. Redshirt senior Matt Tenaglia (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) was 2-for-4 with a walk and a hit by pitch. Senior right fielder Tyler Gregory (Dothan, Ala./Houston Academy) and redshirt sophomore shortstop Kyle Weston (Penn Laird, Va./Spotswood) also had multiple hits as eight of JMU’s nine starters recorded a hit.

Catcher Matt Reed and third baseman Johnathan Beary each had two of Marshall’s seven hits with Beary driving in a pair of runs and also earning a hit by pitch. Shortstop Sergio Leon doubled and drove in a pair.

The Dukes broke through first in the well-pitched game with a run in the third on Husum’s RBI single to plate San Martin, who then made it 2-0 in the fifth with a double to score Weston. The lead doubled to 4-0 in the seventh when Tenaglia and Gregory each tallied RBI singles.

After the strong six-inning start by Toohers, the lead evaporated quickly in the seventh as Beary and Leon each posted two-run base hits to make it 4-4.

Competition in the Caravelle Resort event continues on Saturday when the Dukes meet Rhode Island at 5 p.m.