In a tightly competitive weekend against the James Madison University Dukes, the Arkansas State baseball team squeezed by with a 2-1 series win.

Game One: Red Wolves mount the comeback

The opening inning started on the wrong foot for the Red Wolves. The second at-bat on defense gave up a run after a double from the Dukes’ shortstop Josiah Seguin sent left fielder Kyle Langley from first base back to home. Following A-State pitcher Chase Richter’s first strikeout of the game and a stolen third base, Seguin scored a run on a passed ball. 

Luckily, the infield put a stop to the Dukes for the inning, but this pattern of small lapses on defense continued to pile up through the game. Meanwhile, A-State struggled to respond at the plate throughout the first half. After letting up four runs, the Red Wolves finally fired back at the bottom of the second with a homer from first baseman Derek Martinez, scoring for both himself and second baseman Cason Campbell.

The Dukes wasted no time at all and shot back at the top of the third with a home run that sent two runners around the bases, prompting the first of many pitching substitutions from A-State. The Red Wolves’ offense hit a dry patch for the next two innings, allowing The Dukes to strengthen their lead 6-2. 

JMU created a six-score deficit to start the fifth inning, taking advantage of a fielding error and stealing home to tack two more runs onto the scoreboard. Once again, A-State went back into the bullpen to swap pitchers in an attempt to stop the flurry of runs from the Dukes.

Going into the bottom of the fifth with the largest lead of the game against them, the Red Wolves finally made their push for the win. Following two walks thrown by the Dukes’ pitcher Jaden Kisler, Campbell smashed the ball out of the park for his fourth home run of the season, resuscitating the nearly lifeless A-State offense. Shortstop Patrick Engskov and right fielder Evan Griffis scored off the homer, inching A-State closer to a tie game at 8-5. 

In an attempt to push the score in favor of the Red Wolves, Head Coach Mike Silva made his biggest in-game lineup change so far this season at the top of the sixth, with four starters subbing out and two changing positions. Considering that the single run from this period would be the last score from JMU in game one, it is safe to say that A-State’s adjustment turned out for the best. 

Meanwhile, the Red Wolves continued to torch the JMU defense with three homers, tallying up another six runs to take their first lead of the game at the bottom of the eighth. After another dry spell period for the Dukes at the top of the ninth, the visitors sealed their fate in game one. The Red Wolves were able to overcome an early deficit and take the first win of the series 11-9.

Game Two: JMU counters in extra innings

Hoping to clean up their sloppy first-half at-bat antics from Friday, the Red Wolves came out on offense and tied their highest scoring inning of the weekend at the bottom of the first to create an early 4-0 lead. 

This electric period was sparked by Martinez, who hit a grand slam during his first at-bat. The infielder was one of the biggest highlights of A-State’s play this weekend, totalling nine RBIs, three homers, and four runs throughout the series on his way to earning himself a Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week award for his performance.

Following a scoreless opening from the Dukes, the visitors tied the score in the second at 4-4 with a three run homer and sacrifice bunt score. With a chance to launch a counter-attack, A-State stumbled and went three-and-out at the plate. 

The Red Wolves bounced back after their blunder in the second, scoring at least once from the third inning to the sixth, allowing the lead to blossom into a 10-6 advantage while JMU only put up two runs in the same time frame. 

Hitting double digits on the scoreboard through six innings, A-State seemed poised to keep the momentum going. However, they found themselves in JMU’s late-game position on Friday, being unable to generate any offense against the Dukes’ adjustments. 

After JMU evened up the score at the top of the ninth, the game went into extra innings following another scoreless period from A-State. Even with two extra frames at bat, the Red Wolves still could not find a way around JMU’s defense.

In a reversal from game one, A-State found itself on the wrong end of a comeback, losing 11-10 after 11 innings.

Game Three: Defensive grudge match victory for A-State

Game three proved to be more of a battle on defense than the previous match-ups in the series. With the runs combined from both teams on Sunday totalling less than either team’s total on Friday or Saturday, it was less of a fight to see who could produce more, rather who could prevent more. 

The game high for RBIs was a tie at one between A-State catcher Kaden Amundson and Griffis while JMU’s only run came from a fielding error from Martinez. Amundson hit his second homer of the season to make up half of A-State’s scoring while Griffis hit a sacrifice fly out to give Martinez the other half. 

The duel between pitchers fell in the favor of A-State as well with pitcher Jelle van der Lelie throwing six strikeouts, recording more than all three JMU pitchers combined in the closing game of the series. 

After their sixth series win of the season, the Red Wolves will travel to Alabama to face Sun Belt rival Troy in another three game matchup this weekend in hopes of getting their third victory in conference play.

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