Gameday! The Spiders (20-4, 4-2) head to Harrisonburg to take on the James Madison Dukes (9-15, 4-2 Sun Belt) at 4PM ET. Stream should be available on ESPN+. The Dukes are coming in on a 2 game win streak after winning their 2nd SBC series of the season at Marshall, and currently have an RPI of 181. Yes the record and RPI are not great but y'all... I was shocked when I opened up the JMU baseball page to take a look at some stats.
As a team they are hitting below the Mendoza line (.199), are not hitting for much power at all (8 home runs all season), and as a result are scoring less than 4 runs per game. When they do get on base they do look to steal bags (2nd in the Sun Belt with 42 steals, not an eye popping number). One hitter that they have been working into the lineup lately who rides a 6 game hitting streak is Maddux Fleck, Jr. infielder out of Omaha. Hitting .293 and has scored 10 runs in his 13 games played to go with 5 stolen bases.
Hard to say what pitching we are going to see today, but as a staff, the Dukes have a 5.28 ERA and .258 BAA, about middle of the road in a strong SBC. In conference play, they are even better, pitching to a 3.86 ERA in their first six games, leading me to believe we may see some pitchers we could take advantage of today.
Anything can happen in these mid-week games, but boy it would be nice to take another game against an in-state opponent that appears to be scuffling. The Duke's RPI will surely fall as the season progresses, as they still have conference series against Troy, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, and ODU.