James Madison University defeated the University of Louisiana Monroe, 10-2, on Sunday afternoon to claim a Sun Belt Conference baseball series victory at Lou St. Amant Field, according to an April 26 announcement.
The result is significant for James Madison as it improves their record to 18-24 overall and 8-13 in the Sun Belt Conference. The win demonstrates both effective pitching and timely hitting from the Dukes.
Freshman Tyler Lutz delivered his first quality start of the season for James Madison, pitching a season-long six and two-thirds innings while tying his season-high with seven strikeouts and allowing just two runs. Junior Ike Schmidly led the offense with a career-best performance at the plate, going four-for-four with a run scored, an RBI, a double, and two walks.
The Dukes built their lead early through sacrifice flies by Wyatt Campbell in the first inning and Reece Moody in the second. Campbell added to the advantage with a solo home run in the third inning. In the fifth inning, Jack Cannizzaro hit a two-run home run before Schmidly drove in another run to make it 6-0. ULM managed runs in both the fifth and seventh innings but could not close the gap further.
James Madison sealed its victory by scoring four more runs in the ninth inning using singles from Kyle Langley and Jack Guerrero along with small-ball tactics such as sacrifice bunts and flies. The team also placed five of its nine leadoff hitters on base during the game.
Other notable performances included Moody reaching base safely for his sixteenth consecutive game—tying Langley for this season’s longest streak—and Schmidly finishing his weekend nine-for-thirteen at bat with three home runs across three games. Campbell has now homered three times over his last four games.
Looking ahead, James Madison will finish April on Tuesday against Virginia Tech.
