The James Madison Dukes will begin their weekend series against the Arkansas State Red Wolves, and are entering the series in the midst of a slump that has seen multiple blowouts.
JMU began their Sun Belt Conference play with a series sweep over the Georgia Southern Eagles. They followed that up with getting swept by the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The sweep wasn’t a particularly close one either, as all three games ended in the seventh inning because they fell ten points behind.
James Madison was outscored 38-8 in the series with Coastal, and the second game of the series was a shutout. Two of those eight runs were in the first two games, and they only managed six total hits combined.
All three games ending in the seventh inning goes to show that the series was very one-sided, and one team was just in complete control.
After the series against Coastal Carolina, the Dukes lost to the Radford Highlanders at home 10-6. The Dukes started the game with two runs in the first inning. Radford responded in the top of the third inning with two runs of their own, and James Madison tacked on a run in the bottom third. After a scoreless fourth inning, James Madison gave up six runs over the next three innings, and that put the game away as Radford coasted to the victory from there.
Arkansas State is coming into this matchup after losing the series to the Georgia State Panthers after dropping the rubber match 9-5 on Sunday. Arkansas State struggled to connect with the ball in the match, only recording seven hits in the game.
Arkansas State has been led by Lane Walton, currently ranking third in Sun Belt RBI leaders with 32. He also leads the team in runs with 28 and has a share of the lead in hits with 30.
Arkansas State has been the most efficient pitching team in the Sun Belt, allowing the lowest batting average at .228, the lowest hit total with 180, and the lowest run total with 87. James Madison has been one of the worst batting teams in the Sun Belt, ranking 13th out of 14 in runs, 11th in hits, and 12th in home runs, so that is something James Madison will look to change in this series.
While Arkansas State has the better overall record with a 16-8 record compared to the 11-12 record for James Madison, both teams sit at 3-3 against the Sun Belt, so this is a big series for both teams.
The series between the Dukes and the Red Wolves kicks off Friday evening, with the first pitch slated to begin at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. ET) on ESPN+.
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