Diamond Dukes Clinch Playoff Birth

The JMU baseball team closed out the home season with a sweep of Towson this weekend. The high scoring Dukes got the series started off right witha 13-9 win on Friday night. Catcher Jake Lowery had another monster game at the plate, going 2 for 3 with a home run and a triple. He batted in 5 of the Dukes 13 runs to set the school’s all time single season record.

David Herbek put the Dukes ahead for good in game 2 with a 2 run homer in the 6th inning. It was Herbek’s 14th home run on the season. Jake Lowery picked up where left off Friday night driving in 2 more on a double. He also walked twice and scored a run.

In the series finale this afternoon, JMU waited out a rain delay and crushed the Tigers 11-1. The offensive outburst was great, but probably unecessary thanks to the way Alex Valadja pitched. The southpaw went 6 strong and only gave up 1 run. Second baseman Bradley Shaban hit a 3 run homer and had 4 RBI on the day and first baseman Matt Tenaglia hit safely for the 19th straight game with a double. Herbek went 2 for 5 and per usual, knocked another run in. He now has 81 on the season in only 51 games. With 4 games left in the regular season, he’s already set the JMU single season mark and has the 3rd highest single season total in CAA history.

The 3 game sweep moved the Dukes to 34-17 overall and 18-9 in the CAA. After scoring in double-digits in 2 of the 3 games, JMU is now 21-0 when scoring more than 10 runs. The Dukes are is currently tied with ODU for first place, but the important thing is that they’ve already clinched a spot in the 4 team CAA playoffs. Securing the top seed would be nice, but with only 4 teams in the playoffs, it provides very little in the way of an actual advantage. Every little bit helps though and the Dukes will take an advantage they can to avoid losing in the playoffs for a second year in a row.

Photo courtesy of JMUsports.com’s photo gallery.