Loynd, Kane Homer But Blue Hens Drop CAA Opener To JMU

Friday, March 25

Newark, Del.

3:00 PM

University of Delaware

10-9, 0-1

James Madison

12-9, 1-0

James Madison

Delaware

Photo by: Jeff Fannon

Loynd, Kane Homer But Blue Hens Drop CAA Opener To JMU

3/25/2022 6:10:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

NEWARK, Del. – Joey Loynd and Aidan Kane each belted home runs but the Blue Hens' comeback bid fell short as Delaware dropped its CAA opener to James Madison, 7-5, Friday afternoon at Bob Hannah Stadium.

The Blue Hens opened the scoring in the bottom of the second when Jake Dunion reached on a Dukes error and scored on a two-out double to rightcenter by Loynd, but JMU took the lead for good by scoring four times in the top of the third.

Kyle Novak lined a bases loaded single up the middle to plate two, and after Carson Bell followed with an RBI single to right, Novak scored on a double steal. Bell than added an RBI single in the top of the fifth, before Loynd drilled his team-leading sixth homer of the year in the bottom half to make it a 5-2 game.

Trevon Dabney singled home a run before Fenwick Trimble drove home another on a fielder's choice groundout in the seventh to increase the Dukes' lead to five.

Delaware got two back in the bottom of the eighth on RBI groundouts by JJ Freeman and Joseph Carpenter, while Kane led off the bottom of the ninth with a homer to right. However JMU reliever Eli Ottinger retired the next three batters to seal the win for the Dukes.

Chris Ludman took the loss after allowing seven runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts in six-plus innings of work, before Dom Velazquez gave up just one hit in three scoreless frames of relief. Loynd and Jordan Hutchins each recorded a pair of hits at the plate for the Blue Hens.

Jim Sherman
"JMU pitched just a little bit better and hit just a little bit better today. We came on a little later with our offense, and hopefully we can flip the script and be better than them tomorrow in both of those areas. Hopefully we can walk away from the first two games with a split, and then get the rubber match on Sunday. I thought our pitching was pretty good, they just came up with some timely hits and that was the difference."

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