James Madison begins series with Coastal Carolina
The 11-8 James Madison Dukes are currently on a four-game winning streak, and they will take that winning streak to Conway to face the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.
After sweeping their Sun Belt opening series against Georgia Southern, James Madison followed that up with a 12-7 victory over George Washington, with multiple innings resulting in three or more runs.
It was a very back-and-forth contest that saw George Washington jump out to a 3-0 lead at the top of the second inning. JMU responded in the bottom of the inning with three runs of their own to tie it up. George Washington got two more runs in the third and fourth innings to go up 5-3. James Madison scored four runs in the fourth to take a 7-5 lead. After the two teams exchanged a run each in the fifth inning, James Madison closed the door shut in the sixth inning with four more runs, ending it with a 3-RBI triple by Ben Barrow. George Washington scored another run in the ninth, but that wasn’t enough.
During their four-game winning streak, the Dukes have done a fantastic job putting runs on the board. Three of the four wins they have scored over 10 runs, with 13, 12, and 12 runs respectively. The only game they didn’t light up the scoreboard was their second game against Georgia Southern, but they still won the game despite only having three runs.
Beachin’ this weekend.#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/Fm63ZSOAlQ
— JMU Baseball (@JMUBaseball) March 19, 2026
On the opposite end, the Chanticleers sit at 13-7 on the season, and are coming off a loss to Campbell after sweeping their first Sun Belt Conference series against Appalachian State. Coastal Carolinas series against App State was certainly the dramatic one, as they had to come back from early deficits in the last two games of the series.
In their loss to Campbell, Coastal Carolina got off to a slow start and didn’t get going until late. At the end of the sixth inning, they were trailing 3-0, but they scored two runs in the top seventh to get themselves back into it. At the top of the ninth inning, Blake Barthol hit a sacrifice fly that resulted in an RBI as Cruz Harlan ran in for the score. Despite tying it up, they fell one point short as Mike Murphy hit the walkoff for Campbell.
The theme for the loss for Coastal Carolina was one of blown opportunities and failure to connect with the ball. They ended the game with 11 guys left on base (LOB), leaving off several scoring opportunities. They only recorded one hit through all nine innings.
James Madison will look for some revenge this year, as Coastal Carolina swept the series last season.
These were two of the four teams to sweep their opening series, along with Marshall and ULM.
Game one of the three-game set will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 20.
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