HARRISONBURG, Va. – Yrral Davis hit a solo home run in the fourth inning, but it was not enough as the Norfolk State softball team dropped a road non-conference match up with James Madison, 13-7, on Thursday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Harrisonburg. The Dukes advanced last season to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.
The game marked the first time the Spartans played outside of the Tidewater area this season after hosting three home tournaments and played four games at Hampton on another weekend.
JMU started things off quickly in the first scoring four runs on five hits. The Dukes led off the bottom of the first with a pair of hits and then loaded the bases with a walk. A third hit scored the runner from third base, but the runner on second tried to reach home but was thrown out from Alison Guckin in left field to Tuli Iosefa at home. JMU went on to score three more off two more hits to extend their lead to four.
In the second, the Dukes walked four different batters including a bases-loaded walk to Iosefa that scored Morgan Johnson to help cut the lead down to three after two complete. Joana Vallejo came into pitch in the bottom of the frame and collected three strikeouts to prevent any Dukes from touching home plate.
The Spartans again cut the JMU lead in the top of the third. Kenna Higa led off with a double down the left field line and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Imani Moore. A deep flyout to left field by Cam Andersen allowed Higa to round third and reach home. However the Dukes scored four more runs in the bottom of the inning to pull ahead 8-2.
Davis led off the fourth inning with a home run to left field on a 2-2 count that cut into the Dukes lead. After Lily Potter walked, Alison Guckin hit a bunt single to third to put runners on first and second. Iosefa the hit a ball through the middle of the infield that pushed Guckin to second and allowed Potter to second. Victoria Ruiz came into pinch run for the Spartans and both her and Guckin advanced a base to put two runners in scoring position with just one out. Two wild pitches to Kenna Higa allowed both Ruiz and Guckin to score and pulled NSU within two at 8-6.
A two-run home run by JMU in the bottom half of the inning pushed the lead back to four as the teams headed into the fifth. For the first time all game, no runs scored in the fifth as neither team was able to get a runner to touch all four bases in the frame.
The Dukes prevented NSU from scoring in the top of the sixth and were able to score three runs in the bottom of the frame to go up 13-6. Despite NSU getting an RBI single by Guckin in the seventh, the Dukes came away with the 13-7 win.
NSU (10-10) will continue its road trip tomorrow when it begins the Thundering Herd Invite hosted by Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. The Spartans play in back-to-back games on Friday, starting with a 1 p.m. game against Marshall before taking on the Catamounts of Western Carolina at 3 p.m.
