App State buries James Madison to clinch series victory
The App State Mountaineers erupted for 20 hits and led from start to finish in a dominant 19-10 victory over the James Madison Dukes, clinching the series victory and handing the Dukes their sixth straight loss, their longest losing streak of the season.
App State came out of the gates firing with Ethan Puig getting the scoring started with the RBI single. A bases-loaded walk gave App State another score, a Colton Denton RBI single, a sacrifice fly by Drew DuPont, and a Charlie Evans RBI groundout put James Madison in the early hole. By the time the top of the first inning ended, App State was looking at a 5-0 lead.
James Madison did answer in the bottom of the first with an RBI double by Clay Thompson, but that was the Dukes’ only score of the first, and then App State continued the onslaught in the second.
Puig, Mummau, Denton, and Evans all recorded RBIs in the inning and put App State up 9-1 in the second inning, but JMU responded very quickly to claw their way back into it.
They were able to cut the deficit to 9-6 with an RBI single by Jack Cannizzaro after multiple miscues by App State, as a hit batter, wild pitches, and fielding errors setting up the first score. A two-run double from Cameron Aycock an RBIs from Reece Moody and another RBI from Kyle Langley brought them back in the game.
James Madison cut into the lead some more in the fourth inning after a wild pitch led to Aycock scoring, and a sacrifice fly by Thompson set up the Moody score, cutting the JMU deficit to 9-8.
App State had a big response in the sixth inning with four runs. A two-run double by Denton got them going, and errors by James Madison’s pitcher, as Joseph Zamora and Steven Smith were both hit by the pitch, leading to runs with bases loaded.
Just as in the second inning, James Madison had a response in the sixth with multiple runs to bring it back to 13-10.
App State put the game away over the next several innings, beginning with a crushing home run by Miller in the seventh.
In the eighth, Smith delivered a big two-run homer and an RBI groundout by Miller put the Mountaineers up 17-10. RBIs by Smith and Zamora effectively ended the game in the ninth, giving App State the 19-10 victory, and three strikeouts by James Madison ended the game.
App State’s offense was well-balanced throughout the game as multiple players recorded multi-hit or multi-RBI performances, but the standout player was Smith, as he ended the game with three runs, three hits, and four RBIs, and two of those RBIs came off a homer. Denton had four RBIs, Puig, Miller, Mummau, Evans, and Zamora each recorded two.
James Madison had 15 hits, and they were led by Aycock, who had three hits of his own, two runs, and two RBIs. Thompson chipped in with three RBIs while Moody and Langley each had three hits.
The Mountaineers improved to 21-16 (9-8 Sun Belt) on the season, and have now won seven out of their last nine games. The Dukes have gone in the opposite direction, dropping their sixth consecutive game, and are now 16-21 (6-11 Sun Belt) on the season.
The final game of the series is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. ET and airing on ESPN+.
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