February 28, 2007
BOX SCORE
FARMVILLE, Va. -- Longwood University took an impressive 3-2 baseball victory past visiting James Madison University of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Wednesday at Lancer Stadium in Farmville. The Lancers (8-5) scored the winning run against the Dukes (1-4) in the bottom of the eighth inning on a one-out RBI double by sophomore Jon Quigley/Annandale (W.T. Woodson) (1-3, RBI), while seniors Needham Jones III/Portsmouth (Woodrow Wilson) (1-1) and Brian McCullough/Virginia Beach (Princess Anne) (1) combined to pitch the final 4.2 shutout innings for the hosts to earn the mound win and save, respectively. Longwood, with only its second win over JMU in 10 overall contests, will play again this weekend, March 3-4, hosting Valparaiso University for a three-game series at Lancer Stadium in Farmville.
James Madison got on the scoreboard first in the closely-played contest with an unearned run in the third inning. Mike Fabiaschi (1-2) reached on a one-out walk and scored after advancing to third on a double from Kellen Kulbacki (1-2) before moving across the plate on a throwing error from the outfield on the play. Longwood came right back, though, to tie the game at 1-1 in their half of the third when freshman Phil Cerreto/Midlothian (Midlothian) (1-3) doubled down the left-field line with one out and crossed the plate on an RBI single to center field by sophomore Robbie Bailey/Mechanicsville (Hanover) (1-3, RBI). The Lancers went ahead 2-1 in the fourth inning as freshman Casey Havers/Thorofare, N.J. (West Deptford) (1-3, RBI) blasted a two-out double to the fence in straight-away center field to score classmate Frank Berry II/Virginia Beach (First Colonial) (1-3) who had singled earlier in the inning.
The Dukes fought back to tie the score again, this time at 2-2, in the fifth inning when Steven Caseres (1-3, RBI) hit a one-out RBI single to right field to plate Fabiaschi again. He had reached base on a one-out double, and JMU had runners at both second and third base with just the one out before Jones entered for Longwood and promptly induced a double-play on a fly-ball out to right field where sophomore Paul Heidler II/Warrenton (Notre Dame Academy) (1-3) made a strong throw home that forced the runner at third to retreat but was out on the tag off a bullet from catcher Quigley. In the eighth inning, the Lancers got a one-out single from senior captain Tyler Ames/Exmore (Northampton) (1-3) who proceeded to score the game’s decisive run on the two-out double by Quigley.
Jones (1-1) earned the pitching win in relief with 3.2 innings of perfect work, retiring the 10-straight batters with three strikeouts, four fly-ball outs, and three ground-ball outs. McCullough (1) entered to pitch a perfect ninth inning as well with one strikeout and two ground-ball outs for his first save of the season. Allie Swanson (0-1) took the mound loss for JMU with two-thirds of an inning of late relief, allowing two hits and one earned run with one strikeout and one walk. Bobby Lasko had pitched well for the Dukes, scattering five hits and two earned runs with five strikeouts over the first 7.0 innings.
