HARRISONBURG, Va. - Yesterday's scenery was new, but the result was definitively the same. The Virginia baseball team (16-14, 5-4 ACC) - who lost to James Madison (21-7) at home Monday - traveled to Harrisonburg yesterday, only to have the Dukes give them the same message, and deliver it even louder.
The Cavaliers fell by a margin of 13-4, eight runs more than they allowed the previous afternoon. James Madison saw to it that they wore down the Cavaliers' confidence, ability and drive, and made sure to nearly empty the Virginia bullpen in the process.
"We definitely lost this game on the mound," Virginia coach Dennis Womack said. "As well as we pitched [Monday], we were just way off today."
The Cavalier pitching squad for the day included six different pitchers for eight innings, who combined to allow 10 walks, an effort Womack deemed "completely unacceptable."
After Monday's loss, the Cavaliers looked hungry for revenge. When the Dukes drove home one run in the first, it seemed as though a fire was lit under the Cavalier dugout. Junior Robert Word opened the next innings with a home run over the centerfield fence, and junior Shawn McCleary followed with one of his own. Yet after that, Virginia went six innings without scoring. While the Cavaliers had opportunities, nothing materialized.
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"When you have a runner on third, you should be able to get that guy home," Word said. "But we just couldn't get it together. We were hitting all right, but we couldn't make it happen."
The Dukes stepped to the plate in the third and sent two more runners home, passing the Cavaliers and never looking back. They scored a run each in the fourth and sixth, exhausting Cavalier starter Canon Hickman and reliever Matt Zimmerer in the process.
As the Cavaliers faced JMU hurler junior John Gouzd in the seventh, the game still was up for the taking. Yet it seems that "Lucky Number 7" was not quite so lucky after all. Despite a single by junior third baseman Eric Christensen, the Cavaliers did nothing on offense and fared even worse defensively. The Dukes stretched out the inning, sending 11 batters to the plate and racking up 7 runs, stretching their lead to 12-2.
Virginia attempted to mount a response in the top of the eighth, sending freshman Matt Street to pinch hit, but nothing came of it and in the bottom the Dukes held to their contention of superiority.
James Madison's senior Jason Cushman and sophomore Alan Lindsey got on base and, in the confusion of a fly ball hit by Dukes' pinch hitter freshman Mike Butia, Cushman scored.
The Cavaliers appeared determined to rage against the dying of the light, and freshman pinch hitter Miguel Lui¤a ignited a hint of life into Virginia's hopes with a double in the ninth. After senior Rob Newton was thrown out at first, Christensen followed with a walk to give the Cavaliers two men on. Two batters later, senior David Stone doubled and scored Lui¤a and Christensen, but the effort was too little, too late. The Cavaliers had shut the door on a potential win long before the sun dropped in Harrisonburg.
Yesterday's loss put the Cavaliers 4-1 for five days, and leaves Virginia to undergo some serious reevaluating.
"If we play like we did today," Womack cautioned, "We'll get swept at Maryland."
The Cavaliers will need to cut their losses and find a way to mount a more consistent effort on the mound in the next few days in order to escape such a fate.
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