‘Charlie Wholestaff’ Falls to Radford
March 26, 2009 • By Wes Shaw, The Breeze
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Tuesday is typically the day JMU has “Charlie Wholestaff” on the mound, as JMU coach Spanky McFarland said in the preseason.
And with plenty of pitchers to share the blame, JMU baseball dropped its fourth straight game to Radford on Tuesday in Harrisonburg.
Sophomore James Weiner took the loss as the Dukes were pummeled 14-3. Weiner was one of six pitchers to throw for Madison on the day, giving up four runs — one earned — and four hits in one and 1/3 innings.
In the absence of a true fifth starter, Madison’s 12th-year coach opts to string together five or six pitchers for one or two innings a piece on some weekday games, thus saving his top-of-the-rotation starters for weekend and conference series.
JMU has lost four straight to Radford, but three of those losses have come on weekdays, when the Dukes do not typically have their best arms on the mound.
“I think part of it’s the pitching match ups,” McFarland said of his team’s losing streak to the Highlanders. “It seems like we can normally beat them when we throw a power arm.”
JMU’s weekend rotation of sophomores Turner Phelps and Alex Valadja and freshman Evan Scott has combined to go 8-3 this season, giving up just 47 earned runs in 88 and 2/3 innings. The young group has well exceeded preseason expectations after JMU lost two of its top three starters from last year to injury this offseason. And while JMU’s defense has held its own, it’s offense has been cause for concern recently.
Other than its 11-run sixth inning in Saturday’s win over Northeastern, the Dukes have only scored four runs in their last three games.
“I think the whole team’s cooled off,” McFarland said. “Not so much hits as runs, we just haven’t been able to spring a lot of hits together in the same inning.
Junior center fielder Alex Foltz had his first homerun of the year. Sophomore first baseman Trevor Knight was 3-for-4 with an RBI.
JMU will play next this weekend in a three-game conference series at Towson. JMU defeated Towson in the CAA Championship final last year.
Contact Wes Shaw at breezesports@gmail.com
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