HARRISONBURG, Va., March 12, 2008 – James Madison University hit four home runs and five batters had at least three hits as part of a 20-hit attack in a 20-5 victory over George Washington University in a non-conference baseball game on Wednesday afternoon at Long Field/Mauck Stadium.

JMU improved to 10-3 and won its sixth game in a row.  GWU dropped to 6-6 on the season.  The Dukes surpassed 20 runs for the first time since plating 21 against Hofstra last April.  JMU also scored in every inning in the game, the first time for that feat since a seven-inning win over Central Connecticut State in 2003.  The Dukes have not scored in every inning of a nine-inning game since at least 2001, the timeframe for which records were immediately available.

The four home runs in the game for JMU were the most since hitting four in a 15-9 win at Georgia State last April.  The Dukes now have 18 long balls through the first 13 games, compared to last year when they hit seven over the same time frame in getting off to a 1-12 start.

Not to be overshadowed by the offensive numbers, redshirt sophomore Jason Kuhn (Stafford, Va./Brooke Point) relieved freshman starter Turner Phelps (Roanoke, Va./Lord Botetourt) after an injury in the second inning and worked 4 2/3 perfect innings for his first collegiate victory.  He gave up a sacrifice fly to the first batter he faced before then setting down 13 more consecutively, including three strikeouts.  Freshman James Weiner (Charlottesville, Va./St. Anne’s-Belfield) allowed one run on two hits in the final three innings for his first save.

Freshman McKinnon Langston (Tallahassee, Fla./North Florida Christian) had the best game of his young career with season highs of four hits, three runs, and five RBIs, including a double and a home run.  Sophomore Matt Browning (Mystic, Conn./Fitch) also reached a career high with five RBIs on three hits, including a home run, with three runs scored.

Three other JMU batters had three-hit days as freshman David Herbek (Haymarket, Va./Battlefield) reached base in all five plate appearances with three hits, including a home run, three RBIs, two walks, and two runs scored.  Redshirt junior Brett Sellers (Greencastle, Pa./Greencastle-Antrim) was 3-for-4 with a home run, two runs and two RBIs to extend his career-best hitting streak to nine games.  Redshirt sophomore Steven Caseres (New City, N.Y./St. Joseph’s Regional) was 3-for-5 with a career-high four runs scored.

Redshirt sophomore Justin Dignelli (Katonah, N.Y./The Hackley School) took the loss for the Colonials after surrendering seven runs, six earned, on six hits in 2 1/3 innings.  GWU had just five hits in the game with two each by sophomore Sean Rockey (Sammamish, Wash./Eastlake) and senior Charlie Kruer (Old Bridge, N.J./Old Bridge).  Rockey hit a solo home run on the second pitch of the game while Kruer also scored twice in the game.

George Washington scored three times in the first inning with the only hit the leadoff home run.  Phelps issued four walks and hit a batter to account for the other runs.  GWU led 4-1 entering the bottom of the second before JMU scored 17 unanswered runs to pull away.  The scoring included six runs in the third, three in the fifth, four in the seventh, and three in the eighth.

JMU will be home again this weekend when the Dukes take a 5-1 conference record into a three-game Colonial Athletic Association series against Towson beginning at 3 p.m. Friday.