James Madison lost the second game of their series with number 12-ranked Southern Mississippi. It was a close game until the Golden Eagles scored five unearned runs in the fourth inning. The game became an 11-1 laugher. Jack Guerrero made an error at third base on a bunt.
It is difficult for a pitcher, like Holden McKinney, to overcome fielding mistakes. It is hard when your team gives the opponent a free out. What happened in the fourth inning after the error? A sacrifice fly, a single, and a three-run home run. Do you think it is a cliché in baseball that mistakes kill?
James Madison and Southern Mississippi Game Summary May 9
Southern Mississippi scored a single run in the second inning. Then, the Golden Eagles erupted for five runs in the fourth inning. All of those runs were unearned for McKinney. Nevertheless, the runs count just the same, and the 6-run lead for the Golden Eagles chased McKinney out of the game after just 3.2 innings. Through five innings, the Dukes had only one hit.
Southern Mississippi scored one run in the sixth inning and four runs in the eighth inning to take an 11-0 lead. JMU scored a run on a hit by pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning. That made the score in the game 11-1. This was the final score of the game.
Mistakes Kill
While it is true that every baseball fielder makes errors, it also seems to be the case that those errors happen to struggling teams when they can ill afford them. That is what happened to James Madison today. They were struggling to get hits, and the Golden Eagles took advantage of an error to score five runs in the fourth inning. The score was 6-0, and given that the Dukes were not getting hit, it was difficult to imagine how JMU could have won.
Southern Mississippi scored a single run in the sixth inning to make the score 7-0. This game was out of hand, as the Golden Eagles are very strong on the mound. Then in the eighth inning Southern Mississippi scored four more runs, which made the score an unseemly 11-0.
Hitless Wonders
It is tough to score runs if a team does not hit the ball. That was the case with James Madison in this game. They allowed five runs in the fourth inning, all unearned, and fell behind 6-0. At the same time, they were held to one hit by the reigning Sun Belt Conference pitcher of the week in Camden Clark.
The two hits they got in the first seven innings were by Wyatt Campbell and Kyle Langley. The team also received one walk. Ironically, by Guerrero, who committed that one error that allowed all five of the unearned runs.
Clark, meanwhile, was outstanding. He pitched six shutout innings, allowing only two hits and one walk. He struck out nine batters. The performance lowered his sparkling earned run average to 2.83, which is exceptional for a pitcher in college.
Defend Your Home
One of the important things in sports, let alone baseball, is to defend your home. This means to win your home games. James Madison has now lost two conference games at home to Southern Mississippi. They might lose again tomorrow as well.
This game was lost in a particularly embarrassing manner. Not only did the team commit a fielding error that resulted in five unearned runs being scored, including a three-run home run, but they were dominated by the opposing pitching. This was a sad effort from James Madison, who has the pleasure of facing this team again tomorrow at noon.
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