April 26, 2003
Box Score
HARRISONBURG, Va. - James Madison junior left-hander Kurt
Isenberg (Virginia Beach, Va./First Colonial) and George Mason senior
left-hander John Sterling (Middletown, Del./Caravel Academy) nearly matched
each other stat-for-stat Saturday afternoon. But, it was Isenberg's
teammates who were the more economical with their offense as the
homestanding Dukes defeated the Patriots 5-1 in Colonial Athletic
Association baseball at Long Field.
The Dukes have won seven of their last eight league games to improve to 9-4
in the CAA. With five wins in their last six outings, the Dukes have
improved to six games above .500 for the first time this season at 24-18.
George Mason dropped to 25-14 overall and to 8-5 in the CAA.
Both pitchers went the distance and each struck out seven and walked one.
Isenberg (7-5) finished with a six-hitter in his first complete game of the
season. Sterling (6-2) gave up just five hits, but three were for extra
bases.
Isenberg won his third consecutive CAA start and is 7-2 after losing his
first three decisions. He faced only 17 batters after yielding the
Patriots their only run of the afternoon with two outs in the fourth. An
error, a walk, and a seventh-inning single accounted for all of the
Patriots' runners after the fourth. A double played erased one of those
three runners and another was caught stealing.
The Dukes jumped out to a 3-0 lead on three hits and a balk in the first
inning. Senior center fielder Travis Ebaugh (Newport News, Va./Woodside)
singled up the middle to start the Dukes' offense. One out later, senior
third baseman Brent Metheny (Moorefield, W.Va./Moorefield) doubled down the
line in left to score Ebaugh. Senior first baseman Eddie Kim (Fairfax,
Va./Fairfax) followed with an RBI double to right-center that pushed his
hitting streak to 13 games. Kim eventually scored on a balk.
The Patriots' run came on a two-out sharp single up the middle by sophomore
second baseman Jimmy Freund (Springfield, Va./West Springfield). Sophomore
first baseman Chris Looze (Amherst, Mass./Amherst) singled to start the
inning and advanced to second on freshman catcher Robby Jacobsen's
(Waldorf, Md./Westlake) two-out single to right.
Senior catcher Matt Deuchler (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) homered to
lead off the JMU fourth, giving the Dukes a 4-1 lead with his third homer
of the season. Metheny's grounder to second in the fifth scored senior
shortstop Nathan Doyle (Wilmington, N.C./Laney) with the game's final run.
Doyle had walked, was sacrificed to second by Ebaugh and moved to third on
a balk.
Game three of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.
GMU 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 2
JMU 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 x 5 5 1
Sterling and Jacobsen
Isenberg and Deuchler.
W - Isenberg (7-5), L - Sterling (6-3)
HR - J - Deuchler (3)
Time: 1:55 Att: 251
