With only six games remaining in the regular season, JMU softball picked the perfect time to run off its longest winning streak of the year. After a weekend sweep of UNC Wilmington, the Dukes have won five straight and improved their overall record to 24-20.
In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, JMU won 4-2 behind junior Jenny Clohan’s complete-game victory. It won the final two games of the series via the slaughter rule, 9-1 Saturday and 11-3 on Sunday. It was Madison’s first sweep of the season.
“This was crucial to our season,” junior third baseman Amber Kirk said. “Every game from here on out we have to go all out, because it could put us in the conference tournament or put us out.”
As it stands now, JMU sits in fourth in the Colonial Athletic Association with an 8-6 conference record. Six-time defending CAA champion Hofstra leads the conference with an 11-3 mark.
“The kids came to play this weekend,” JMU coach Katie Flynn said. “We had some good pitching performances and definitely a very strong offensive output. It creates a little separation between us and Drexel in the four and five spots [in the CAA] and I still think we have an opportunity to move up with the remaining games we have.”
Only the top four teams in the conference will be invited to the CAA tournament in mid-May. The Dukes will need to stay ahead of now No. 5 Drexel to earn one of those spots. After being swept by Hofstra this weekend, the Dragons are 7-8 in the CAA, a game and a half behind Madison.
Clohan threw 10 total innings this weekend, starting in the first and last games of the series. On Saturday she struck out a career-high 11 and gave up only two earned runs.
Clohan was on the mound Sunday for three more innings, giving up seven hits but only two runs. She got into trouble in each inning, but was able to work herself out of jams with only minimal damage.
Early in the game, “Clohan felt like the strike zone might have been a little bit tight so she had to put the ball over the plate a little bit more,” Flynn said. “She did what she needed to do and we knew we had Meredith [Felts] to come in and finish.”
Felts threw the final three innings before the Dukes went up by eight and the game was called. The junior gave up only one hit and zero earned runs, striking out three.
Before JMU took complete control of the game, Kirk came to the plate with two on and two out in the fourth, with the Dukes leading 4-2. She took a fastball and lined it over the left-field fence, giving JMU all the run support it needed.
“All I was thinking in my head was ‘give me something to hit,’” Kirk said. “She did, she gave me something in the zone and I just swung.”
The Dukes will be helped by their weak schedule from here on out. UNCW is last in the CAA, with George Mason and Delaware not far ahead. JMU will get the Patriots and the Blue Hens in its final two series of the season.
After a tough early-season schedule, with games against Atlantic Coastal Conference, Big East, and Pacific-Ten schools, as well as series with the top three teams in the CAA, Hofstra, Georgia State and Towson, the Dukes look to take advantage of the light schedule to close out the year.
“We played the 43rd ranked schedule in the country, out of 285 programs,” Flynn said. “When you’re playing PAC-10 teams, you can’t expect to bat .300. We started out a little slower, and the schedule flip-flopped. Really it’s a matter of confidence. Our bats are coming alive and it couldn’t be at a better time.”
