HARRISONBURG ā A three-run fifth inning provided James Madison baseball with enough offense to continue its hot start.
Dukes designated hitter Michael Morgan's two-run triple and first baseman Brady Harju's sacrifice fly in the frame helped JMU to a 3-1 win over Longwood on Tuesday at Veterans Memorial Park.
"We had opportunities early in the game," JMU coach Marlin Ikenberry said, "and with some of these young hitters, we're trying to get them to understand you just have to put the ball in play and manufacture runs. But we didn't get too up or too down about them not producing early, so we stayed even-keeled and kept battling."
Once the Dukes (4-0) broke through, their pitching staff kept Longwood off the board.
Relievers Brett Ayer, Shelton Perkins, Dan Goggin, Matt Marsili and Nick Robertson combined for 5 2/3 scoreless innings behind starter Justin Showalter, a Turner Ashby product, who started for the first time as a college pitcher on Tuesday.
Showalter struck out two hitters and limited Longwood (3-2) to one run over 3 1/3 innings.
"Justin Showalter did a great job in his first career start," Ikenberry said. "You got to hand it to him, I thought he did an outstanding job."
Perkins earned the win and Roberston got the save.