HARRISONBURG, Va. (JMU Athletics) – James Madison baseball chipped at the lead, but an eight-run deficit against Marshall was too much to overcome as it fell, 11-7, on Sunday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Park.

The Dukes dropped to 30-20 overall and 15-12 in Sun Belt Conference play. The Thundering Herd improved to 17-34 (9-18 Sun Belt).

Graduate Brendan O’Donnell finished out a fantastic weekend by going 3-for-4 with a double to lead JMU at the plate. Senior Ryan Murphy got the start on the mound for JMU and went 2.1 innings with a strikeout.

How It Happened
Second Inning
A homer three batters into the inning provided Marshall with a 3-0 lead.

Junior Jason Schiavone got a run back for JMU as he led off the bottom half of the inning with his 16th long ball of the season to make it 3-1.

Third Inning
Marshall put up a six-spot in the third, starting the scoring with a single. A pair of two-run homers, one being Elijah Vogelsong’s second homer of the day, added four runs with the inning being capped off by a double to make it 9-1.

JMU struck for two in their half of the inning, as sophomore Mike Mancini hit a two-run single to make it 9-3 before being thrown out at second trying to extend the hit into a double.

Fifth Inning
A groundout scored a 10th run for Marshall and extended their lead to seven at 10-3.

The Dukes continued to chip away at the deficit, responding with three runs in the fifth. Mancini and junior Fenwick Trimble executed a double steal while on the corners for Trimble to trot home. A double from Schiavone and a groundout from junior Coleman Calabrese scored two more runs to make it 10-6.

Seventh Inning
The fourth homer of the day for Marshall added a run on the board for the visitors and made the score 11-6.

Eighth Inning
Redshirt junior Jacob Steinberg brought a run home on a pinch hit double to make it 11-7 after Calabrese singled to lead off and made it to third.

Up Next
The Dukes will hit the road for the final four games of the season, first taking on Virginia Tech at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14 before finishing out regular season at Troy on May 16-18.

— JMU Athletics —