JMU earns extra inning win

Dukes fall to Lehigh in title game

Katelyn Wyszynski / staff photographer JMU junior Ashlee Schenk takes a swing during their game against Lehigh Friday afternoon.

JMU lost in the Dukes Invitational title game to Lehigh University Sunday, 3-1. The Mountain Hawks got seven innings of solid work, six of which were scoreless, from pitcher Heather Hamasaki.

Junior Liz George connected for a single to right-field in the seventh inning, but Hamasaki put a stop to the attempted rally by the Dukes as she retired the next two batters to clinch the win.

Despite the championship loss, the Dukes played well over the weekend. JMU beat Lehigh 3-1 in eight innings in the opening round Friday.

However, the homecoming could not have been any sweeter; JMU pulled out two wins in one day to snap a six- game, week-long losing streak.

"We play a really tough out-of-conference schedule," coach Katie Flynn said. "I think that only helped us though, especially to get ready for conference play. It's good to be home."

What started as a pitchers' duel eventually ended in extra inning offensive heroics.

In the top of the eighth, junior utility player Katie Jaworski pinch hit with two outs in what would be her only at -bats of the game.

The result was Jaworski blasting a high fastball into the foliage a decent way past the left-center field wall.

The towering home run also plated a runner from second, (placed there due to the International Rules of extra inning softball) to put JMU up 3-1 and eventually to win the game.

Jaworski's first home run of the year broke a 1-1 tie, which had been in effect since the seventh inning.

"This is the field we practice on every day, and no one likes to be embarrassed on their home field," Jaworski said.

JMU entered the bottom of the seventh inning leading 1-0, thanks to a solo home run off the bat of freshman shortstop Katie George in the fifth inning.

"I just got my pitch and didn't waste it," Katie George said in regard to her third home run of the season. Katie George finished the game two for four with a double, a home run, a run scored and a run batted in.

With George's sister, junior right-hander Liz still in the circle, the Dukes hoped to close out their second victory of the afternoon.

It was not to be.

After a lead-off single by Lehigh utility player Whitney Schenbeck, she was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.

The Mountain Hawks capitalized on pinch-hitter Lauren Haney's RBI single through the right side of the JMU infield, which scored Schenbeck from second. The run sent the contest into extra innings tied, 1-1.

In the next half inning, Jaworski answered back with her pinch-hit 2-run homer that lifted JMU to a dramatic victory.

Early on, however, both teams had chances to score.

In the second inning, starting pitcher Liz George avoided a potential mess when the Mountain Hawks had runners at second and third with only one out, on account of a walk and base hit.

But, a diving catch away from the baseline by red-shirt junior Kristi Nixon, gave JMU a big second out that allowed the Dukes to end the inning on the very next batter who grounded to third and silenced the Hawks' bid for an early big inning.