{"id":9412,"date":"2017-05-18T07:05:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T11:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9412"},"modified":"2017-05-18T07:05:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T11:05:32","slug":"guest-post-jmu-softball-is-poised-to-make-a-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9412","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: JMU Softball is Poised to Make a Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"webcover\"Chase Kiddy is a JMU alum living in working in the ‘burg. He’s been fortunate enough to catch many of JMU softball’s games live and in person, so he agreed to write a tourney preview for us. Give him a follow at @chasekiddy<\/a>\u00a0if your own the twitters.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

So here we are. It\u2019s a warm Wednesday in the Valley, and JMU softball is playing late into May. Again.<\/p>\n

This time, though, it\u2019s a little different. This morning, the Dukes weren\u2019t basking in the Valley sun, rolling out of bed with nothing but J\u2019s Bagels on their minds. Instead, they were flying out of Dulles down to Texas, where they\u2019ll play in 15th-seeded Baylor\u2019s Waco regional.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get this out of the way early. JMU (and Minnesota) got screwed out of regional bids. It\u2019s not an all-time sports travesty or anything, but the seeding is noticeably odd. I\u2019m not going to cry. We shouldn\u2019t pout and send nasty tweets to the NCAA. But it\u2019s worth being said, out loud, that this seeding is a bit silly.<\/p>\n

I want to be fair to the committee. This year\u2019s group placed a mega-premium on quality wins, and that clearly impacted the Dukes\u2019 regional selection. A lot of it isn\u2019t even really anyone\u2019s fault; teams that were supposed to be good wins for JMU ended up being duds. The only really great win JMU ended up with by year\u2019s end was Megan Good\u2019s 1-0 shutout win over Auburn.<\/p>\n

With that being said, it\u2019s funny to watch a team like Kentucky — a 36-17 team with no impressive non-conference wins that lost SEC series to the likes of Ole Miss and Georgia, among others, — prepare to host a regional, while the Dukes fly halfway across the country.<\/p>\n

But why spend so much time crying over spilt milk? The regionals have been decided for three days now. Where\u2019s the value in it?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that JMU is a team that, on occasion, will play angry. By now, maybe you\u2019ve heard of this Megan Good character that dons the purple jersey. Megan, in particular, is a player who it seems like physically changes her demeanor when she gets pissed off about something. I\u2019ve seen it dating back to last season, and I saw it as recently as last Friday, when Megan took a line drive off her leg early in the championship game against Hofstra. Mickey motioned for Cici to head to the bullpen and start warming up, as a precaution; Megan responded by shaking him off and adding five or six miles per hour on her fastball for the next two innings.<\/p>\n

Everyone knows about Megan. There are limitless ways to quantify her greatness, from tossing her record around (she\u2019s 36-1) to going through her pitching stats (0.48 ERA, 14 complete game shutouts, and 8.12K\/7) to listing all of the ridiculous conference and school records she\u2019s set this year. That\u2019s before you even get into her batting numbers \u2014 she hits .399 and slugs .679 \u2014 or the completely underappreciated rate at which she takes walks, because nobody knows how to pitch to her.<\/p>\n

I think the thing I appreciate the most about Megan\u2019s game, though, is the Jordan-esque quality of her greatness. She shines brightest in the toughest moments. I think we\u2019ll get a chance to see some of that this weekend, down on the fetid plains.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the team, here are some bullet points you should know, if you\u2019re late to the party:<\/p>\n