Offensive firepower fuels hot Dukes
Posted on March 14, 2008
A year ago the JMU baseball team started the season 1-12 and struggled to find consistent offensive threats. This year’s team seems to have plenty of firepower as Madison beat visiting George Washingon 20-5 Wednesday afternoon.
JMU was led by junior Brett Sellers who went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs. He also had two of the Dukes’ seven stolen bases.
“I’m just trying to go up there and hit the ball hard,” Sellers said. “Guys went up there with short, quick swings and we put together a lot of good at bats.”
At least one run was scored by Madison in each inning to ease pressure on the pitching staff. Redshirt sophomore pitcher Jason Kuhn retired all 14 batters he faced after starter Turner Phelps had to leave the game when a line drive bounced off his ankle in the second inning.
“It’s pretty easy to pitch when you have a 15-run lead,” Kuhn said. “I threw a lot of fastballs, just filled up the zone [and] let them hit it. I have a great defense behind me.”
Stealing bases and hitting singles worked early for the Dukes who then turned to the home run late in the game. Four players hit home runs, including freshmen David Herbek and McKinnon Langston, who had five RBIs. Both hit their first career home runs Wednesday.
The Colonials jumped out to an early 4-1 lead before the JMU bats came alive in the third inning with six runs. George Washington was only able to get two more hits after the second inning.
“Early in the game we weren’t really hitting,” JMU coach Spanky McFarland said. “We looked tired [and] had played a lot of games so [the steals] jump-started our offense.”
The win is the team’s sixth straight win and its eighth in the last nine games. Madison, now 10-3 overall and 5-1 in the CAA, will look to stay hot this weekend at home against conference opponent Towson.
“We haven’t gotten too high or too low as a team,” Sellers said. “We haven’t put a lot of stock into the games we lost and even the games we won we are just trying to take each day as it comes and not look too far ahead.”
