Posted on April 23, 2007
After housing Hofstra 21-8 on Friday, the JMU baseball team struggled on the mound late, recorded five errors and ultimately let one slip away Saturday, losing 10-9 in game two of the three-game home series.
“They just put it in play and make you field the ball,” JMU coach Spanky McFarland said. “They’re pesky. That’s what they do. They don’t hit it hard, they just don’t strike out and they make plays.”
However, JMU junior outfielder Kellen Kulbacki did manage to blast his 16th homerun of the season – a three-RBI shot in the fifth – to put him in a tie for the most in the Colonial Athletic Association.
JMU’s two homeruns on the day tallied their first five runs.
In the early going, the Diamond Dukes seemed to have things under control. Senior shortstop Davis Stoneburner notched a leadoff double for JMU. Sophomore designated hitter Lee Bujakowski sent him home, as he jacked his third homerun of the year to give JMU an early 2-0 lead.
JMU sophomore southpaw Justin Wood got the start on the mound and kept the Pride hitless through four innings.
However, the Pride rallied with three runs in each of the next three innings to take a 9-5 lead going into the eighth inning.
“They made the adjustment to [Wood],” McFarland said. “It took them awhile, it took them five innings, but then they sort of sat back and went up the middle and did a nice job.”
Rather than relying on the long ball, Hofstra got six RBI singles in the three-inning span and three doubles in the sixth inning alone. Hofstra second baseman Chris Mentrasti led the charge for the Pride, recording the first RBI of the rally. Mentrasti finished 2-for-5 with two runs and three RBIs.
Going into the eighth inning, Hofstra attempted to stick with their ace lefty in Charlie Frago. Through seven innings pitched, Frago had held JMU to five runs on six hits.
“[Frago] threw a good game,” Kulbacki said. “We have a lot of left-handed hitters in our lineup and left-on-left is going to be a little bit more challenging for us.”
However, when freshman first baseman Mike Fabiaschi cracked a ball deep to center field for a triple, fatigue seemed to finally be setting in for Frago.
Before the Pride made a pitching change, the Diamond Dukes scored twice as senior outfielder Mitchell Moses drove in Fabiaschi on a double and third baseman Matt Browning singled on a pinch-hit to score Moses.
“We’ve been able to do those kinds of things and get guys off the bench,” McFarland said.
With two outs and runners on the corners, JMU wasn’t finished.
Hofstra’s relief pitcher Will DeVito faced the top of the Diamond Dukes lineup. Stoneburner worked a count full and then drove a liner into the gap between second base and shortstop to bring in the tying runs.
“The energy level went up a little bit,” Wood said. “Everybody started to get more into the game, talking to everybody [and] trying to pump each other up.”
However, following two back-to-back errors by Browning at third base in the ninth, Hofstra had the go-ahead run on third base with no outs.
“Defensively, five errors is a lot in a game,” Kulbacki said. “Anytime you’re giving teams extra bases and runs that shouldn’t be there, it’s going to cost [you].”
McFarland replaced Cook with senior right-hander Bobby Lasko to face Mentrasti, who was already 2-for-4 with an RBI single and an RBI double, batting .312 on the year. Lasko worked a 0-2 count, but Mentrasti grounded the third pitch into a fielder’s choice that scored the game-winning run.
JMU had the chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth when Moses came up to bat with two outs and a man on third. After taking two strikes, and then two balls, Moses wailed on a pitch deep to center field.
However, it was caught at the warning track.
“In that situation, really all you need is a single,” McFarland said. “I think the tendency is to want to be the hero and hit a big homerun to win the game. That’s just a discipline thing and it’s hard not to. That’s a hard situation.”
Said Moses: “Tomorrow’s going to be different … the outcome should be different from today.”
Moses was prophetical as Madison’s bats went to work Sunday in a 16-8 win. The victory marked their first CAA series win of the season.
