HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison and Coastal Carolina entered the ninth inning tied before a two-run homer pushed the Chanticleers past the Dukes, 3-1, on Sunday afternoon in Sun Belt Conference baseball at Veterans Memorial Park.

JMU drops to 12-9, 1-2 SBC while CCU improves to 12-6, 2-1 SBC.

Graduate Jack Cone started for the Dukes and tossed five scoreless frames while striking out a season-high six batters and scattering three hits. Cone also led JMU at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

Teddy Sharkey earned the win for Coastal behind three innings of relief on the mound.

How It Happened
Sixth Inning
After five scoreless innings where the teams combined to advance a runner to at least second base only three times, the Chanticleers broke the 0-0 tie with a two-out solo home run from Derek Bender.

Eighth Inning
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the Dukes smashed their own home run to tie the game at one. Sophomore Jason Schiavone took a 2-2 pitch over the left field wall for his first long ball of the season.

Ninth Inning
Coastal retook the lead after starting the inning off with a single and then Tanner Garrison homering to left field two batters later for a 3-1 lead.

The Dukes wouldn’t go down without a fight though, as redshirt senior Trevon Dabney doubled to left field with two outs to bring the tying run to the plate. Freshman Mike Mancini followed Dabney by hitting a single to put runners on the corners and the winning run at the plate, but a strikeout would end the game.

Game Notes
• All four runs in the game were scored by home runs.
• Kyle Novak extended his reached base streak to 17 games.

Up Next
The Dukes hit the road for their next five games, beginning on Tuesday, March 21 when they play Radford at 4 p.m.

— JMU Athletics —