ATLANTA, Ga. -- James Madison's Courtney Simons and Ashley Burnham each hit a home run and the Dukes withstood a seventh-inning Georgia State rally as JMU won the series finale against the Panthers, 4-3. GSU won the weekend series, 2-1, after a doubleheader sweep on Saturday.
The Panthers entered the seventh trailing, 4-1. However, with one out already on the board, Rebecca Roles reached on an error by the third baseman. An Audrey Mason double to right field advanced pinch runner Elizabeth Thomas to third base. Lauren Jones promptly came to bat and knocked a single to right field, which scored Thomas and Mason. Jones advanced to second on the throw. Whitney Phillips then hit an infield single to give GSU runners at first and second. With the winning run on base, senior Lily Skelton cracked a deep shot to right field that was handled by the center fielder just feet from the fence. A Paige Nowacki ground out ended the contest.
The Dukes improve to 17-28 (5-7 CAA), while the Panthers fall to 29-14 (8-4 CAA). Georgia State continues CAA play next weekend as they travel to Virginia to face off against George Mason. First pitch of Saturday's doubleheader is slated for 12 p.m., while the Sunday contest will also begin at noon.
Simons and Burnham drove in all four of the Dukes' runs. On the day, Burnham was 1-for-2 with a homer and a RBI, while Simons went 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBI. In a losing effort, Jones went 3-for-3 and all three of the team's RBI. The Panthers were hampered by 10 runners left on base.
JMU pitcher Cara Stecher (9-11) earned the complete-game victory allowing two earned runs on 10 hits, while striking out five. Suffering the loss for GSU was Alana Thomas (9-3), who gave up both home runs before exiting the game after three innings. She finished the game with three earned runs on four hits. Reliever Heather Lowry went two innings, allowing what proved to be the winning run in the fifth. Freshman McCall Langford threw the final two innings for GSU, giving up a single hit.
The Dukes got on the board first when Burnham took the first pitch of the contest and sent it over the left center field fence.
The Panthers rallied with small ball in the bottom half of the first. After Cassie Boese singled, Roles put down a sacrifice bunt to advance Boese. The Middlebury, Ind., product advanced to third on a Mason groundout and scored on a Jones single to center field.
A Simons' two-run homer over the right field fence in the third stretched JMU's lead to 3-1, and a Simons' double to left field in the fifth, scored Burnham, to push the lead to 4-1.
