Dukes Take Down Delaware in Series Opener

Friday, March 25

Newark, Del.

3 p.m.

James Madison University

12-9, 1-0

Delaware

10-9, 0-1

James Madison

Delaware

3/25/2022 5:47:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

NEWARK, Del. – James Madison baseball opened up their series with Delaware with a 7-5 victory on Friday afternoon at Bob Hannah Stadium.

The game served as the conference opener for both teams, as the Dukes move to 12-9, 1-0 CAA while the Blue Hens drop to 10-9, 0-1 CAA.

Graduate student Justin Showalter started and earned his second win of the season behind six innings of work and five strikeouts. Redshirt junior Eli Ottinger worked the ninth to pick up his second plate. Leading the Dukes at the plate was redshirt junior Carson Bell, going 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI's.

How It Happened
Delaware struck first in the second inning, scoring an unearned run on a double. The Dukes responded by throwing up a four spot on the scoreboard in their half of the third. Back-to-back singles by freshman Jason Schiavone and redshirt junior Nick Zona put two on before redshirt sophomore Chase DeLauter was intentionally walked to load the bases. Redshirt junior Kyle Novak then singled up the middle to score two and take the lead. Bell then followed with his own single to score DeLauter and make it 3-1. JMU picked up their final run of the inning on a double steal when Bell stole second and Novak swiped home for a 4-1 lead.

Bell then added to the JMU lead with an RBI single in the fifth to score redshirt junior Trevon Dabney to make it a 5-1 ball game. Delaware led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to cut into the deficit, 5-2.

JMU then added two more runs to increase their lead to 7-2 in the seventh. After Zona led off with a single and moved to second on a throwing error during the play, he then went to third on a wild pitch before being brought home on a single from Dabney. The Dukes would load the bases and bring another run around when Fenwick Trimble hit into a fielder's choice.

The Blue Hens would not go down easily, adding two runs in the bottom of the eighth on RBI groundouts to make it 7-4. Ottinger came in for the ninth and gave up a leadoff home run, before getting three straight outs for the save and 7-5 win.

Game Notes

Trevon Dabney's RBI single in the seventh was his 100^th career save.
Four of the six JMU RBI's came with two outs.
Kyle Novak now has 10 multi-RBI games on the season.

Up Next
The two squads face off in the middle game of the series on Saturday, March 26 with first pitch at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed on FloSports.