JMU Softball In Regional Final Today!

Your turn, Ms. Good!

JMU Softball will play in the regional final for the first time in program history today at 2 p.m. in Harrisonburg against none other than an in-state Cinderella in the Longwood Lancers. Coverage available on MadiZoneHD. More than half of the NCAA field of 64 will have been eliminated when the Dukes (presumably) send a rested and ready Senior badass Jailyn Ford into the circle this afternoon. By night’s end, we’ll be down to the Sweet 16, a place neither the Dukes nor the Lancers have ever been.

How They Got Here

The #7 Dukes (48-4 overall now!l) are 2-0 in the Harrisonburg Regional (saying that never gets old) with a 7-0 shutout of Princeton in Game 1 that featured a Grand Slam from RF Taylor Newton and a run-ruling walkoff over the UNC Tarheels in Game 2 that ALSO featured a Grand Slam from DH Jessica Mrozek. Going back to the start of the CAA Tournament last weekend the Dukes are now 5-0 and have outscored opponents by a combined score of 41-3. Senior all-everything Jailyn Ford also recorded her 800th career strikeout today. That seems like a lot.

The Lancers (40-19 overall) dropped their opener to UNC 6-4 before rallying huge yesterday with a 2-1 defeat of Princeton and thrilling 5-4 win over UNC in extra innings last night. Longwood led the game 4-0 before the Tarheels tied it late but the Lancers dug deep to earn the right to face the favored Dukes.

Quick Note of Format

As you may have noticed reading about Longwood’s path, the Regionals of the NCAA tourney are a double-elimination format like the Women’s College World Series. That means the Dukes can win the title outright if they put a second loss on Longwood at 2 p.m. today, but should the Lancers win, it would set up a rematch following that game that would be winner-take-all.

What’s At Stake

For the Dukes, a win today would do so, so many things. First, it would be a program first trip to the “Super Regional” round of the NCAA tourney. Second, that SuperRegional best of three series against the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional would be right back home in the Valley (where the Dukes are 16-0 and 5-0 in the postseason this year) next weekend thanks to that #7 overall seed where they would likely be favored again with a chance to go to the College World Series! The Baton Rouge Regional final today features the homestanding LSU Tigers (2-0) and the Arizona St. SunDevils (2-1), a team JMU defeated earlier this year.  That means with one win today, JMU would host either ASU or LSU next weekend. That’s pretty much the world Top 3 of tailgate schools and would make for a hell of a holiday weekend!

Today’s Game

The two of us don’t know enough softball to dive deep or make predictions, but we do know sophomore pitching sensation Megan Good will be rested and ready to go in Game 1 today while Longwood’s staff has worked an extra game this weekend, including the extra-innings affair last night. We also know the bats, which were really are bigger concern entering the tourney, have heated up throughout the lineup and this Dukes team seems locked in this year. Would also be nice to keep this Grand Slam thing going. Go Dukes!