James Madison Records 4-3 Victory Over Virginia
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April 17, 2001
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia baseball team dropped a 4-3 decision to the visiting James Madison Dukes this afternoon at the UVa Baseball Field. JMU’s Greg Miller (3-4, run) scored the game-winning run in the top of the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie game to give the Dukes their third consecutive win over the Cavaliers.
Virginia jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when Dan Street (3-5, two runs) singled and scored four batters later when David Stone (1-3, RBI) walked with the bases loaded to give UVa a 1-0 lead. James Madison tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fifth inning when Brent Metheny (1-3, two RBI) drove in teammate Nathan Doyle (1-3, run) with an RBI-sacrifice fly to left field.
JMU took a 3-1 lead in the top of the seventh inning when Kyle Walling scored on an RBI-triple to right-center field by Alan Lindsey (3-4, RBI, run) before Metheny drove in Lindsey with an RBI-sacrifice fly to right field to give the Dukes a two run lead. Virginia tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom half of the inning when Mark Rueffert (2-5, RBI, run) hit a solo home run to left field before Doug Vroman (1-4, RBI) scored Street with an RBI-double to left field.
With the game tied at 3-3 in the top of the eighth inning, JMU’s Miller singled to left field, stole second base, advanced to third base on a fly ball to right field by the Dukes’ Eddie Kim before scoring the game-winning run.
JMU’s Mitch Maley (1-0) won his first game of the season after relieving starter Kurt Isenberg (6.1 innings, three runs, 11 hits) by going 1.0 inning and allowing no runs on two hits. Jake Gaiser earned his first save of the year by pitching 1.2 scoreless innings to close the game. UVa’s Will Parker (0-1) took the loss after going one inning and giving up one run (unearned) on one hit after replacing starter Canon Hickman (6.1 innings, three runs, nine hits).
With the loss, Virginia’s record falls to 19-21 overall, while the victory improves James Madison’s record to 22-16-1 on the season. The win was the Dukes third consecutive victory over the Cavaliers after winning two games against UVa last season.
Virginia will travel to Blacksburg, Va. to face the Virginia Tech Hokies on Wednesday, April 18th. The contest is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. and will be played at English Field on the campus of Virginia Tech. JMU will return to action on Wednesday as well when the Dukes face Bridgewater College at 7:00 p.m. at Harrisonburg’s Veteran’s Memorial Stadium.
– UVa –