FARMVILLE, Va. – In a battle of two teams riding matching four-game win streaks, James Madison got four RBI from Adam
Sisk and three more from Bradley McKay to pull past Longwood, 10-5, Tuesday evening at Buddy Bolding Stadium.
Sisk led the way by reaching safely in five of his six plate appearances and driving a pair of two-run singles, but it was McKay who changed the game with back-to-back run-scoring doubles during game-changing rallies in the middle innings. His two-run knock in the top of the sixth
jumpstarted a four-run frame that broke open a one-run game and sent the Dukes (20-16) to their sixth consecutive win against an in-state rival from the Commonwealth.
In the loss Longwood picked up nine hits, led by the team-leading 11th multi-hit game of the season by team captain
Sammy Miller. A 3-for-5 game with a run scored, two stolen bases, and one RBI is only the latest of a recent hot stretch for Miller, who is hitting .424 (14-for-33) in April with 15 runs scored and 10 RBI. Miller is riding a 12-game reached base streak, during which he's hitting .500 (21-for-42) and has helped Longwood to a 7-5 record in that stretch.
Also staying hot in defeat was
Antwaun Tucker, who picked up his fourth consecutive multi-RBI game. Tucker has driven in 15 runs in the past 10 games, leading the team with 15 RBI in April. His seven multi-RBI games is second only to senior slugger
Justin Mitchell's eight.
The Dukes dealt the Lancers (13-22) only their third loss of the past nine games, overcoming a Longwood team that pulled off a dominant three-game sweep of Big South foe UNC Asheville this past weekend. However,
Sisk and McKay's combined seven RBI and the pitching duo of starter Michael
Bechtold and reliever Brett Ayer (2-1) proved too much for the surging Lancers to overcome.
The Lancers mounted a four-run rally of their own in the bottom of the ninth, rapping out three hits, including an RBI single from the leadoff man, Miller, and a two-run single by Tucker. That cut the Dukes' lead to five with two men on base, but James Madison went further into its deep bullpen and called on junior Matt
Marsili to get the final two outs.
The lone blemish on the night for the 1-2 punch of
Bechtold and Ayer came off the bat of Mitchell, who blasted a solo home run off
Bechtold in the third inning that tied the score at 1-1. The Lancers followed by loading the bases in the fifth, but Ayer escaped the jam.
Five of the runs James Madison scored were unearned, including all four against freshman
Tommy Green, who started the four-run sixth. Longwood committed a season-high four errors in the loss.
Longwood will have little time to dwell on the loss with first-place Campbell coming to Farmville this weekend for a crucial three-game series at Buddy Bolding Stadium. The Lancers are currently tied for sixth place in the Big South, deadlocked in a three-way tie with Radford and Presbyterian and fighting for one of eight spots in the Big South Championship in May.
First pitch of the Campbell series will be at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 20, set to air on the Big South Network.
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