HARRISONBURG — Fox Semones’ two-run single in the sixth and DaVonn Griffin’s two-run homer in the eighth gave James Madison hope.

“The entire game we were nipping,” Semones said. “We were right there.”

But each time the sixth-seeded Dukes closed in on No. 4-seed Northeastern, the Huskies separated for a 9-7 Colonial Athletic Association tournament victory to stay alive in the event and put a stop to JMU’s 2019 campaign on Thursday at Veterans Memorial Park.

“It’s one of those things where there’s only a couple of teams in the country that can end their season on a win,” said fourth-year Dukes skipper Marlin Ikenberry, who led his program to the CAA postseason for the first time since 2016.

“It’s very disappointing,” Semones said. “We thought we had a great team to come out of the CAA championship on top and things didn’t go the way we wanted them to.”

The game began to turn in the middle innings when Northeastern plated two in the fourth and put together a three-run fifth to take retake the lead and push the advantage to as many as four runs.

JMU starter Nick Stewart (4-5) took the loss as the Huskies tagged him for four runs on five hits in three-plus frames, prompting Ikenberry to go to his bullpen, which wasn’t much better. Reliever Dan Goggin gave up three runs and power right-hander Nick Robertson, who entered Thursday with a 0.56 ERA, gave up a two-run blast in the eighth to Northeastern’s Ian Fair.

“We knew it was never going to be enough no matter what the number on the board was,” Northeastern coach Mike Glavine said. “It was just a tough game and it always seems to be with JMU.”

Earlier this month, the Huskies took two of three from the Dukes, and one game was decided in extra innings and another was won in walk-off fashion.

Fair’s shot gave his team a 9-5 advantage, negating the importance of Semones’ two-run single that had pulled JMU within two a couple of innings earlier.

“That’s just how the tournament usually goes,” Fair said. “You’ve got to score a lot of runs and we just needed to put at-bats together and we did that, and got big hits when we needed it.”

The offensive outburst for Northeastern (27-28) began as soon as the game did. Leadoff man Cam Walsh drew a walk, Fair followed with a single and Jake Farrell doubled them home to give the Huskies a 2-0 edge three batters into the contest.

JMU got its first run on Brady Harju’s solo homer in the second and tallied two runs in the third, but couldn’t hold the lead.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” Harju said. “But you win some, you lose some.”

And this spring, the Dukes (31-26) won 30 games for the first time since 2011 and more importantly, according to Ikenberry, set a standard for the years ahead.

“Our guys competed at a high level,” he said. “They talk about competing at a high level, and I thought we did for the most part.

“One of the great things about this group is that they are very tenacious in their work ethic, and it was a great group of guys to coach. It was one of the best years I’ve had in coaching.”

There weren’t any seniors in Madison’s starting lineup Thursday, so all nine hitters including Semones, a first-team All-CAA choice, are eligible to return. The same goes for the regular starting rotation of Stewart, Kevin Kelly, Michael Bechtold and Justin Showalter as well as reliable relievers Robertson, Brett Ayer and Shelton Perkins.

“I think everything we accomplished this year were milestones that we’re just going to keep building off of,” Semones said.

Even Glavine said he thinks Madison is heading in the right direction.

“Absolutely,” Glavine said. “[Kyle] Novak comes up to bat and I go to our pitching coach, ‘This kid is going to be a pain in our butt for three or four years,' and same with Tre Dabney at third base. They’ve got great pitching and Ike and Jimmy [Jackson] and those guys do a great job recruiting, and you can see the difference.”

Northeastern advances to play at 11 a.m. today in another elimination game.