HARRISONBURG — This is new for James Madison baseball and something coach Marlin Ikenberry hasn’t had to worry about often.

“The guys have garnered a lot of interest,” Ikenberry said, “and more interest than any other year that we’ve been here. In the winter months we had scouts meet with our guys and we kind of had a revolving door of scouts come through.”

Next week’s Major League Baseball Draft, which begins Monday and runs through Wednesday, could feature as many as six Dukes selected during the 40-round event.

The program’s top prospects are underclassmen.

Ikenberry said reliever Nick Robertson, who just finished his redshirt sophomore season, and starter Kevin Kelly, off of his junior season, are most likely to be chosen from Madison. The fourth-year skipper also said reliever Shelton Perkins and utility man Fox Semones, who both wrapped up their juniors seasons, could be picked as well as relievers Matt Marsili and Dan Goggin, who have graduated.

Robertson and Semones were first-team All-Colonial Athletic Association choices and Kelly was the team’s No. 1 starter in a season JMU finished 31-26 while reaching the CAA tournament for the first time since 2016.

“There’s two ways of looking at is as a head coach, and you can say, ‘Man, I’m not going to have them for their senior year and that impacts wins and losses,’” Ikenberry said. “Or you can look at it and say, ‘Wow. That’s going to affect the class that comes in and then the class after that,’ because those kids can say, ‘Wow, Nick Robertson got picked in the Top 10, Top 15 rounds.’ So it helps in recruiting. And then it’ll help when those guys make their big league debuts.

“It’s like whenever a guy makes his big league debut they mention that school he went to, so it can go a long way in the recruiting realm and then help with exposure of the program.”

So, Ikenberry is rooting for all his players — and the two or three incoming recruits, who could be picked — to have their lifelong dream of an opportunity to play professional baseball come true.

“It’s a neat part of what we do on the player-development side of coaching,” he said.

The last JMU product to be picked in the MLB Draft was Colton Harlow when the Colorado Rockies took him in the 30th round last year. In the same draft, Dukes shortstop Nick Zona was picked in the 38th round by the New York Mets out of Hanover High School, but opted to attend JMU instead.

And that’s the decision the incoming freshmen and current juniors who are drafted face — go to college, stay in college or sign a contract with the team that picked them.

“The other thing that’s important for them is to understand the business side of the draft,” Ikenberry said. “Especially when they’re juniors in college. I tell them all the time you don’t know what the business side of it entails when you’re a junior as opposed to being a senior.

“A long time ago, I had a young man that told me in his exit meeting that he was going to sign if he got drafted, but he never got drafted. Then as a senior got drafted pretty high, but he didn’t understand it when he went through the draft his junior year because it’s supply and demand and about market value with what they can get you for next year versus what they can give you this year. So there’s a business side of it.”

Robertson probably had his stock elevate more than anyone else on the roster this year, and it’s for a few reasons. During the spring, he compiled a 5-1 mark to go along with eight saves and a 1.01 ERA while striking out 54 batters over 35 2/3 innings.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the analytic world as well,” Ikenberry said. “When you look at spin rates, off-speed stuff, opponent’s batting average and the fact that he just kept going out and having really good outings, that’s what started the snowball effect of scouts wanting to see him more, more and more. Early in the year, he had five or six outings and one wasn’t very good, but his numbers started getting better, better and better, and that’s the part you want to see in a junior. You want to see him getting stronger as the year goes on and that’s what Nick did.”

Kelly evolved into a prospect differently, according to the Dukes coach.

The right-handed ace, who went 7-7 with a 3.26 ERA over 15 starts, benefited from a successful stint in the Cape Cod Baseball League last summer. He played in the Cape’s All-Star Game and had a 1.25 ERA over 36 innings there.

“You look at Kevin Kelly’s numbers from freshman year,” Ikenberry said, “then summer ball, sophomore year, then summer ball and junior year, and he climbs the ladder with all those numbers combined.

“He’s up there, and that’s the analytical world that the common person doesn’t understand because [MLB teams are] not only combining what the kids do here at JMU, but also what they do when we place them in the summer leagues. They take those numbers and combine them, but we don’t see that information and it’s not information you can Google because each team has their own information with analytical value that they put on these players.”

Kelly and Robertson aided the rest of the bullpen arms, Ikenberry said. If a scout was coming to see a Friday start by Kelly and hoped Robertson would close the game for the Dukes, that scout had no choice but to evaluate whatever reliever was tasked with bridging the gap.

“Shelton Perkins is the best example of that,” Ikenberry said.

Throughout Ikenberry’s tenure at JMU, only one underclassman was drafted and signed a contract to leave school early. Former infielder Kyle McPherson departed after his junior season in 2017 when he was picked by the San Francisco Giants in the 26th round.