James Madison Loses 5-4 In a Road Game To George Washington

James Madison lost a non-conference baseball game 5-4 against in-state rival George Washington in extra innings. This game was an opportunity for the Dukes to capitalize on winning two of three games from conference opponent Marshall over the weekend.

The Dukes took a 3-0 lead in the first inning today. That lead stood up until the eighth inning when George Washington tied the game at 4. This was a rivalry game, as both teams are Virginia teams. There seemed to be some bad blood in this game as several players were hit by pitches. Do you think the impressive start by Tyler Lutz gave the team some momentum for today?

James Madison and George Washington Game Summary

James Madison jumped out to a 3-0 first-inning lead. George Washington walked the first three batters of the game and changed pitchers. Reese Crochet pitched to a total of three batters and was then removed in favor of Henry Knighton. George Washington picked up a run in the second inning. The score stayed 3-1 until the eighth inning, when George Washington scored three runs. Those three runs tied the game at four.

All three of those runs against James Madison scored with two outs. George Washington won this game in the 10th inning by scoring one run.

Season Hitting Statistics

Seven batters have batting averages over .300. Josiah Seguin leads the team with a .349 batting average. Unfortunately, his season has been interrupted by injury. Kyle Langley, Clay Thompson, and Cameron Aycock are all batting .333. Ryan Gocio, the freshman catcher, is batting .313. His season, too, has been interrupted by injury. Reece Moody is batting .307, and Ike Schmidly is batting .303. Overall, the team is batting .280, and its opponents are batting .300.

Schmidly leads the team with 11 home runs. Wyatt Campbell has 8. Seguin, though he has missed games this season, is third with 6 home runs. Thompson is fourth on the team with four home runs. Langley and Jake Cannizzaro both have three home runs. Moody and Jack Guerrero both have 2 home runs. The rest of the team does not have any home runs.

Run Like You Stole Something

Aggressive baserunning can put pressure on the defense, move defenders, and open up holes for hitters. In short, there are good reasons to run. James Madison has been running a bunch this season. They have stolen 131 of 150 bases. The team leaders are Moody, who has 31 stolen bases, and Thompson, who has 22.

The stolen base is clearly a part of their game. They have given up just 78 stolen bases. In this game, a low-scoring affair, there were not many stolen bases, though Jack Anderson of the Dukes had one.

Why Do Batters Get Hit?

James Madison got hit three times in this game, and George Washington got hit once. That begs the question of why batters get hit by pitches. Batters could get hit because of wild and inaccurate pitching. That happens more often in college than in Major League Baseball. Hit batters could be innocent.

Or, hit batters could be more nefarious. Sometimes pitchers retaliate for a hard play or a hit by a batter against them. If a team hits one team’s player at a position, that team’s player at that position may also get hit. If a team hits another team’s best player, the first team could retaliate. This behavior is part of the ‘unwritten rules of the game.’

There is no way to find out what happened in this game, but JMU was hit three times, and George Washington was hit once. For Madison, Seguin, Thompson, and Jack Cannizzaro were hit. For George Washington, Nick Mullin was hit. Both Seguin and Mullin are shortstops. Maybe one was hit because the other one was.

Lutz Impresses

Lutz has put together two quality starts in a row. This includes beating Marshall in the team’s last game. With him being so young, there are great things ahead. This game occurred just a week after he pitched his last gem. Sunday, he pitched seven innings in the 5-3 James Madison win.

He has pitched 53 innings this season for the team, and though he has an earned run average above five, he seems to be figuring things out now. His development is important for the Dukes.