James Madison Falls 8-5 To 12th Ranked Southern Mississippi In Conference Showdown

The James Madison baseball team faced a big challenge in facing the number 12-ranked Southern Mississippi. The Dukes lost the first game of this three-game series 8-5. The Golden Eagles are a good baseball team, and they have several good players on their roster. This home series presented a challenge for the Dukes.

Southern Mississippi came into the series at James Madison 34-14 overall and 16-8 in the Sun Belt. So far, they are 3-0 in May, and they have two conference series remaining this season. How many games in this series do you think James Madison will win?

James Madison and Southern Mississippi Game Summary

James Madison faced a big challenge in hosting number twelve Southern Mississippi. The Golden Eagles are also in second place in the Sun Belt. The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead, with runs in the second and third innings. The Dukes must have thought here we go again. However, they responded well. They scored a run in the third inning to immediately respond. Then they scored two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings. That made the score 5-2, and it stayed that way through the sixth inning.

That is when Jaden Kinsler came in to pitch for the Dukes. He was charged with four runs. Actually, Southern Mississippi scored six runs in the sixth inning. Luke McGrath first relieved Patrick Bauer. He pitched a scoreless fifth inning, but allowed two runs in the sixth inning, without recording an out. That is when Kinsler came in and allowed four more runs. That made the score 8-5 Southern Mississippi.

Southern Mississippi Stars

Leading hitter Davis Gillespie is batting .326 with 12 home runs and 39 RBI. Kyle Morrison has 14 homers and 40 RBI, while Seth Smith is hitting .313 with 2 homers and 22 RBI. Joey Urban and Matthew Russo are batting .296 and .293, respectively. The Golden Eagles also have good pitching.

James Madison came into this series with some star players as well. Six players in their batting order have batting averages at, or above, .300. They are Josiah Seguin, Clay Thompson, Cameron Aycock, Kyle Langley, Ryan Gocio, and Ike Schmidly. There are no James Madison pitchers with an earned run average lower than four runs per game.

Game Times Shifted

James Madison had changed the time of the Saturday and Sunday games in this series. No reason was given. The game with Southern Mississippi on Saturday will now be at 4 p.m. The game with the Golden Eagles will be at noon on Saturday. The Friday night game was unchanged. The game began at 6 p.m.

Great Performances

Bauer pitched great for James Madison. This was a game against a superior opponent on paper, but Bauer had something to say about that. He pitched 5 innings and allowed only two runs. He did give us seven hits, two doubles, but he did strike out four.

There were some good hitting performances in this game as well. Three Dukes had two hits. They were Schmidly, Campbell, and Jack Cannizzaro. Matthew Russo and Drey Barrett both had two hits for the Golden Eagles, and Barrett hit a home run. Southern Mississippi was the beneficiary of six walks. James Madison only benefited from one. That was the major difference in this game. Several of those Golden Eagle walks scored.