William and Mary blasts JMU baseball, 10-3

The James Madison baseball team opened the scoring with two runs in the top of the second inning on Saturday afternoon but William & Mary later scored in six consecutive innings to hand the Dukes a 10-3 loss in Colonial Athletic Association action at Plumeri Park.

JMU fell to 12-23 (2-12 CAA) on the season after tallying just six singles on the day, while W&M sophomore right-hander Nick Brown threw his first complete game of the season to lift the Tribe to 17-19 (8-6 CAA) in 2015.

Five different Dukes tallied hits on the evening, led by a 2-for-4 night from junior shortstop Kyle Weston, who also drove in a run. Junior catcher Bobby San Martin added an RBI and a run, while freshman second baseman Kyle McPherson extended his hitting streak to four games and scored a run.

The Dukes struck first, tallying four singles in the second inning to plate a pair of runs. McPherson roped a one-out single to left to start the rally before moving to second on a wild pitch. San Martin drove him in with a poke to center field that put JMU up 1-0, then moved to second on Weston’s first single of the day and later scored on a base hit from freshman center fielder Michael Sciorra that made it 2-0.

However, JMU would not score again until the ninth inning and the Tribe would plate one run in each inning from the third to the sixth to go up 4-2. With the game still in the balance, W&M erupted for three runs on just one hit in the seventh before plating three more on five hits in the eighth to stretch its advantage to 10-2.

Sophomore left fielder Ky Parrott and sophomore first baseman Brett Johnson drew walks to start the ninth inning, with Johnson’s extending his reached-base streak to 18 games, but Weston’s two-out RBI single would be all that the Dukes would muster in their final at-bat.

Freshman starter Eric Yankey struck out a pair and surrendered just two runs across his three innings, while fellow freshman left-hander Colton Harlow was saddled with the loss and fell to 0-3 after throwing the final four frames. Brown moved to 5-1 on the year, striking out three and walking two in his complete game victory.

JMU will wrap up its three-game series with the Tribe on Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. matchup. Live audio will again be provided by William & Mary.