40-6, 24-0
The Legend Grows
Happy Monday Morning Dukes! We’ve got a very special Spring Game report coming Tuesday or Wednesday from our Maester of Recruiting @Michael_2Clutch and Rob will be covering the always fun, but always underwhelming on the news front Coaches Caravan later this week. But first we HAVE to explore those numbers in the headline and everyone’s new favorite JMU squad, the badass women of Dukes’ Softball!
We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves:
40-6 – JMU’s overall record
17-0 – Goes w/out saying the Dukes are lapping the field in the CAA
24-0 – Freshman pitching phenom Megan Good’s record thus far this season. 24 is tied for the program record for W’s in a season.
0 – Number of hits Elon had in Sunday’s 8-0 throttling. The fourth no-no in program history would only be more impressive if it Megan Good’s effort wasn’t still in the shadow of #2 stud pitcher Jailyn Ford’s earlier PERFECT GAME a few weeks back.
17 – JMU’s RPI. This is important because although they remain disrespected (#CAA4Lyfe) in the national polls, languishing in the 20’s, the top 16 RPI has traditionally been the most important factor in determining host sites for NCAA Sub-Regionals. The Dukes are certainly making an enormous push for an extended Spring in the ‘Burg! (Huge thanks to @BHansen40 for the serious softball knowledge).
31 – JMU’s current winning streak is so long that the last loss came on a weekend that Men’s hoops was still in action!
And this thankfully means the Dukes will host the CAA tourney if not a sub-regional in the NCAA’s. Tourney will be in the ‘Burg May 6-8 and chances are the women will be mopping the floor with the league just like they have all year!
Also, JMU will be attempting to avenge their season-opening 3-2 loss by whipping Virginia Tech and their 58-turkey-feet-on-the-minivan followers at home again this Wednesday evening if you’d like to catch a softball clinic!
Their last 8 conference wins have all been run-rule games. They can hit and pitch like nobody’s business — a true joy to watch. AND their isn’t a senior on the roster. I’m not liking this if I am a CAA coach not named Dean…
Because I don’t get to see them very often (though I caught most of the UDel series and about half of this weekend on-line through UDel and Madizone), my one question is how well they can really play defense. It’s been a long time since they’ve been in a game where tight defense matters. If we didn’t learn anything from the trip to Lexington, KY last year is that against the upper echelon teams, one error can get you beat.
I agree with Mr. Hansen, RPI will be critical to the process. I think we HAVE to win out through the conference tournament. With the SEC and PAC-12 dominating the RPI like they do (if you read ESPNW, you’d think the SEC was the only conference that plays softball…oh yeah, the SEC does have its own ESPN network, so what was I thinking?
I believe the following are locks to host sub-regionals:
SEC: Alabama, Florida, LSU, Auburn, Tennessee
PAC-12: UCLA, Arizona, Oregon
ACC: Fl. State
Big-12: Oklahoma
CUSA: La-Lafayette
Probable sub-regional hosts:
Missouri, Arizona State
That leaves JMU in a pool of 5 schools fighting for 3 host spots:
Kentucky
Notre Dame
UCF
Georgia
JMU
The ladies are 1-1 against these schools, but Georgia also just swept UK on the road this weekend. UK will end the season w/nearly 20 losses and despite UCF’s pitching, they are still hovering around the 20-22 RPI. As long as JMU wins out and UK does not win the SEC tournament, the last 3 host spots go to:
ND
Georgia
JMU
*there
Thanks for the very informative nuggets Ken!