HARRISONBURG, Va. – Freshman Matt McDermott collected three hits, junior Hunter Smith recorded three RBI and senior Charlie Fletcher tied the program all-time appearance record, but the William & Mary baseball team was edged by James Madison, 5-4, on Saturday afternoon. The Dukes (18-16, 4-7) homered twice in the seventh innings to erase a Tribe (14-22, 3-8) one-run lead and clinch the series.
 
Unlike the series opener, the second game molded into an evenly contested affair with a 3-all tie after four innings. The Tribe grabbed its first lead of the weekend, 3-1, in the top of the third. Junior Owen Socher and sophomore Patrick Ryan were both hit by pitches to set the table.
 
Following the first out, McDermott barreled a double to left field, bringing Socher home. The Dukes retired the next batter on a strikeout, but Smith delivered a clutch two-out two-RBI single to left center.
 
JMU would answer with a two-run frame in the bottom of the fourth. A walk and hit by pitch placed a runner in scoring position, before a grounder advanced them both. Bradley McKay then sent a sac fly to left field, and Zach Tondi hit a two-out RBI single to right center for a tie game.
 
The Tribe took the lead in the top of the seventh, 4-3, behind a sacrifice fly from Smith, but the advantage didn't last long. In the bottom half of the frame, DaVonn Griffin evened the game with a leadoff dinger to left field. A Fox Semones inside the park home run on the next at bat proved to be the game-winner.
 
Tribe Standouts
McDermott tallied his three hits in four at bats, adding a double and RBI. Smith finished the day 1-for-3 in notching his sixth multi-RBI effort. Socher doubled for the fourth time this year and also scored a run.
 
Inside the Numbers
- JMU batted .300 (9-for-30) as a team, while W&M finished with a .219 hitting rate (7-for-32).
- Both teams managed just two hits with runners in scoring position.
- The key difference was extra base hits as JMU had four and W&M generated only two.
- Matt Colon (1-0) earned the win after fanning two and allowing just one run on one hit in 1.2 innings.
- Fletcher (0-2) received the loss as he notched two strikeouts, but surrendered two runs and two hits in the seventh.
- Nick Robertson picked up the save by striking out four and blanking the Tribe in the last two innings. 

Notes
Fletcher made his 96^th career appearance in sharing the school record with Pete Vernon '08…The Tribe has had 18 of its games decided by one run...W&M stole a season-high three bases…Smith tied seventh in Tribe history with two runners caught stealing…McDermott tallied his eighth multi-hit game – three of them were done on three hits.
 
Up Next
Due to a forecast of inclement weather, the series finale on Sunday has been moved up to a 10 am first pitch.