WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The William & Mary baseball team embarks on an eight-game road trip as they travel to Harrisonburg for a three-game CAA series against James Madison. The set gets underway on Friday, April 15 at 6 p.m., continues on Saturday, April 16 at 4 p.m., before concluding on Sunday, April 17 at 1 p.m.
TribeAthletics.com caught up with head coach
Brian Murphy to discuss the VCU game, on the eight-game road trip, and the upcoming series with James Madison. The video feature is available through the above link, or by clicking
here.
ON TAPThe William & Mary baseball embarks on an eight-game homestand as they head to Harrisonburg for a three-game Colonial Athletic Association series against James Madison. The set gets underway on Friday, April 15 at 6 p.m., before continuing Saturday, April 16, at 4 p.m., and concludes on Sunday, April 17 at 1 p.m.
The Green and Gold is looking to get back in the win column and snap a season-long five-game losing streak in the series opener on Friday night.
SERIES HISTORYThe Tribe faces James Madison for the 98th-100th times this weekend at Veterans Memorial Park. The Dukes lead the all-time series by a 56-41 mark. Last season, the Tribe swept the three-game set at Plumeri Park.
Last year the offense combined to score 36 runs over the three game set. Individually, senior
Charley Gould led the Tribe in the series a year ago. He hit .667 (8-for-12) with three doubles and six RBI. Gould started the three-game set with a five-hit performance on Friday night.
SCOUTING THE DUKES James Madison enters the weekend series looking to build off of a walk-off win against VMI on Tuesday night. The Dukes have posted a 14-19 record, and are 4-5 in the CAA, just a half game behind W&M and Northeastern.
As a team, JMU hits .276 so far this season. Chad Carroll leads the team with a .413 batting average. He has seven doubles, three triples, one homer, and 15 RBI. Reigning CAA Rookie of the Year Kyle McPherson leads the team with 29 RBI, while Brett Johnson leads the team with six homers, and is second on the team with 24 runs driven in.
On the mound the Dukes have combined for a 6.90 team ERA. Aaron Hoover anchors their rotation with a 5.87 ERA, tossing 46 innings with 20 strikeouts. Saturday starter Colton Harlow leads JMU with 27 strikeouts. Michael Evans leads the team with 16 appearances, and is tied with Ben Garner for the team lead with three saves.
Marlin Ikenberry is in his first year at the helm of James Madison. He owns a 296-316-1 mark in 12 year's of coaching with the previous 11 seasons coming at VMI.
ON DECKNext week, the Tribe travels to Norfolk State (April 19), before heading to North Carolina (April 20) for its last two road mid-week games.
The road swing concludes as the Tribe travels north to visit Northeastern for a three-game series. That set gets underway Friday, April 22 at 3 p.m.
TRIBE IN THE PROSWith Opening Day taking place this week all around Major League Baseball, the Tribe has four players on the road to the show.
Ben Guez is starting his season with the Colorado Sky Socks (AAA - Milwaukee Brewers). Nick Thompson is with the Palm Beach Cardinals (Advanced A - St. Louis Cardinals). Michael Katz is with the St. Lucie Mets (Advanced A - New York Mets), while
Ryan Hissey starts with the Lansing Lugnuts (A - Toronto Blue Jays)
DOUBLING DOWNW&M again is up in the national statistical rankings in doubles and doubles per game. The Tribe ranks 29th in the NCAA with 71 doubles, and 28th with 2.2 doubles a game.
Individually senior
Charley Gould leads the team and ranks 46th in the country with 13 doubles.
GOING, GOING GONEWilliam & Mary has had two players have multiple home run games this season. Both
Josh Smith and Junior
Charles Ameer belted two homers in the same game.
SCORING IN BUNCHESThe Tribe ranks 38th in the country with 7.3 runs per game, but when the team starts scoring the runs usually come in bunches. W&M has had 22 innings this season, where they have plated four, or more runs.
Furthermore, the Green and Gold have had five games where they have scored four, or more, runs in multiple innings.
The most runs W&M has scored an inning this season has been 7 on April 3 against Georgetown, but the Tribe has also scored six runs an inning three times this season.
WALK THIS WAYSenior
Josh Smith has had some flair for the dramatic this season with both of the Tribe's walk-off hits this season. Against Holy Cross he lifted a sacrifice fly to centerfield that scored
Kyle Wrighte on a sacrifice fly. On Saturday against Georgetown,
Josh Smith launched a walkoff homer over the centerfield wall sending the Tribe home winners.
GETTING ON BASEJunior
Ryder Miconi leads the team with a streak of 28 consecutive games of getting on base. He extended to the team with a walk in the VCU game on April 13.
Senior
Josh Smith (18), sophomore
Cullen Large (16 active) freshman
Kyle Wrighte (15), sophomore
Ryan Hall (13), and junior
Charles Ameer (10) have all strung together double-digit on-base streaks.
GRAND OLE TIMESophomore
Cullen Large launched his and William & Mary's first grand-slam of the season against Richmond March 22.
Last season the Tribe combined for three grand-slam homers.
WEEKLY AWARDSSenior
Charley Gould was selected as the CAA Player of the Week for the week of March 21, becoming W&M's first weekly award winners. Gould batted .500 (9-for-18) with three doubles, two homers, seven runs scored and nine RBI's in William & Mary's 3-1 week, that included a conference series win at Elon.
Both junior
Charles Ameer and freshman
Hunter Smith followed up Gould's weekly award with weekly awards of thier own. Ameer batted .714 (10-for-14) with four doubles, a homer, five runs scored and six RBI's from the leadoff spot, while
Hunter Smith hit .571 (8-for-14) with three doubles, a triple, a homer and 10 RBI in William & Mary's three wins last week.
SMOOTH RYDERJunior
Ryder Miconi has provided a sturdy bat at the DH spot for the Tribe. He is fourth on the team with a .316 batting average (30-for-95) with six doubles, a triple, two homers, and 16 RBI.
He has reached base safely in his last 28 games.
His best week of the season came the week of March 14-20 when he hit .529 (9-for-17).
