James Madison Wins 7-3 In Final Game Of Season and Avoids Sweep By Conference Foe Old Dominion Ending Poor Regular Season

James Madison had a rough regular season. They ended it with a 7-3 win over conference foe Old Dominion. The win was a surprising end to the regular season for the Dukes. The Dukes have struggled to score runs for most of the season, despite having five hitters in their batting order hitting over .300. Struggling to score runs was not a problem today.

James Madison started their ace, freshman left-handed pitcher Tyler Lutz, who benefited from great run support in this game. The beleaguered bullpen had to finish the game, and they did. Do you think Lutz will experience a sophomore slump next season for the Dukes?

James Madison and Old Dominion Game Summary

The regular season could not end soon enough for the James Madison Dukes. This game was well-pitched and low-scoring. It was a nice surprise that they scored so many runs today. The Dukes scored five runs in the third inning. A two-run home run powered that outburst. The home run was by Kyle Langley. However, the Dukes had a run-scoring single and double in the inning.

In the fifth inning, Old Dominion got a run back, but they gave up two more. One in the seventh and one in the eighth inning. The score was 7-1 in favor of the Dukes. Old Dominion scored a run on a home run in the eighth inning. They got another run on a single, and the final score of the game was 7-3.

Road Warriors

Why is it so difficult to win games on the road in baseball? There are a couple of reasons. First, teams are likely more familiar with everything at their home park. That ranges from the field, to the dugout, to the locker room. Second, when a team plays at home, they play in front of their home fans, with their home Public Address Announcer.

On the road, they have no such advantage. Almost every team has a worse record on the road than at home. That was definitely the case with James Madison this year. With today’s win, they finished 7-19 on the road this season.

Dukes Hitting Stars

It has been a rare occasion this season that James Madison has had hitting stars, but the game today was different. Perhaps the Dukes were motivated by the regular season’s end. Maybe they were motivated by 11 seniors and 1 graduate student on the team. This was their last collegiate game.

That is so because only the top 19 teams make the single-elimination conference tournament. With the win today, the Dukes finished with an 11-19 conference record. That was 13th in the conference, so not good. They could move up one or two spots, based on the results of other games. However, they are not going to finish in the conference top 10, so their season is now over.

At any rate, here is who stood out in this game. Langley was 2-for-4. He had a home run and two runs batted in. Reece Moody and Clay Thompson were both 3-for-4. Both scored runs, and both had a run batted in. Moody walked and stole a base as well. Lutz was strong on the mound again for the Dukes. He threw seven innings, allowing one run and six hits. He only stuck out one batter.

Single Elimination Tournaments

The Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament is single elimination. While that may be expeditious for the movement of the tournament, it is not great for baseball. That is because in baseball, any team can beat another team on any day. We probably saw an example of that in this game, with James Madison winning after it lost the first two games to Old Dominion.

That is why in Major League Baseball championships are played in series. That is also why the College World Series in double-elimination. In fact, in college, after the first round of the tournament, teams play series or are in double-elimination brackets.