There was never the chance to gain any traction.

Only five Division I baseball programs played the same amount or fewer games than James Madison did this past spring.

“The hardest part of it all was just the stopping and starting,” Marlin Ikenberry, the Dukes coach, told the Daily News-Record on Thursday. Earlier in the week, Ikenberry had his contract extended through next season.

“Baseball is such a game of rhythm and consistency,” he said. “It’s a game of routine.”

And the most recent campaign, in which JMU finished 11-17 and missed the Colonial Athletic Association tournament for the third time in six seasons under Ikenberry, was anything but routine.

Last year, when Ikenberry’s original five-year contract was set to expire, JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne and Ikenberry agreed on a one-year extension on the heels of the abbreviated 2020 season.

At the time, Bourne said he wanted to evaluate Ikenberry’s status based on a full season of data to be fair to both JMU and its coach. It’s safe to assume Bourne had similar thoughts again this spring, having noted in a press release on Monday, “the unusual last two years” Ikenberry and his staff have faced. Across March and April, the program experienced a pair of extended pauses because of coronavirus issues, and Ikenberry said even he had to be quarantined at one point during the spring.

The days and weeks in and out of those breaks were no picnic either, according to the skipper, who never had the luxury this season of knowing whether or not he could pencil in the same lineup every day.

“When you put guys on the baseball field and in the dugout for a three-game series,” Ikenberry said, “and somebody tests positive [for the virus] during that baseball weekend, it affects everyone who was around that weekend.”

Just look back at the March series JMU played against VMI, and there’s merit to Ikenberry’s point.

During the Thursday game in Harrisonburg, the Dukes used all of their regulars to knock off the Keydets. But - two days later when the sides met again in Lexington - the same group wasn’t available for Ikenberry and he was forced to use five different starters in his lineup.

The trend of shuffling continued as all but three position players – star center fielder Chase DeLauter, standout right fielder Conor Hartigan and catcher Michael Morgan – dealt with either extended coronavirus issues or injury this spring, Ikenberry said.

“We just had some unfortunate things and uncontrollable injuries that were really tough,” Ikenberry said. “Like, [infielder] Fox Semones ended his season with a wrist surgery. But he was playing in our series against UNC Wilmington and he really could not swing the bat, but we didn’t have another infielder who was available. So, he had to play defense and he knew going into the weekend he probably only had four or five swings in his hand and in any other opportunity he was going to bunt.

“Those were hard things to watch when kids who had put so much effort into the program, like Fox, and you’re watching him end his career like that. Those were things that happened when you add in the COVID protocol and we had guys in concussion protocol, too, and then all of a sudden, you’re looking up and playing guys in different or difficult spots.”

Ikenberry said the virus issues were especially frustrating because his club didn’t have any serious problems with it until they were in the thick of their season. JMU baseball had only four positive tests from Sept. 27 of last year through March 10, but after that the cases began piling up.

He said there were other problems, too, outside of virus-associated woes that led to the demise of the 2021 squad – mainly pitching and defense.

Under Ikenberry and pitching coach Jimmy Jackson, the pitching staff’s ERA dropped every season beginning from when they arrived in 2016 until the shortened season last year. But in 2020, the 4.18 ERA wasn’t too shabby for a team replacing four pitchers who had been selected during the previous MLB Draft. This year, though, the staff ERA uncharacteristically ballooned to 6.38.

Ikenberry, entering his seventh season at the helm of the Dukes next spring, said he and Jackson will prioritize the development of a young staff this offseason. Outside of starters Justin Showalter and Nick Stewart, JMU mostly used pitchers in high-leverage roles for the first time in their careers.

Showalter, the Turner Ashby alum, could be back next spring if he’s not drafted, Ikenberry said. Showalter, lefty reliever Donovan Burke and right-handed reliever Lliam Grubbs were bright spots on the mound for the Dukes. Burke was 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA and struck out 38 hitters in 33 innings. Showalter took a no-hitter into the seventh and earned a victory against the College of Charleston in just his second start after rejoining the Dukes midway through the spring following extensive rehab from an injury suffered last summer.

“We’ve been so strong on the mound for so long,” Ikenberry said. “We expected some guys to do things and it just didn’t come to fruition.”

Ikenberry said he is confident in the core of position players he has returning with DeLauter, Hartigan, catcher/utility man Travis Reifsnider, first baseman Kyle Novak, shortstop Nick Zona and infielder Carson Bell.

As a team, JMU boasted the second-highest batting average and slugging percentage in the CAA behind only league champion Northeastern. DeLauter was a first-team All-CAA choice for his .386 average and six homers, and Hartigan was a second-team All-CAA selection for his five homers and 24 RBIs.

“I feel good about our club and like our club a lot,” Ikenberry said. “And I think they’ll be hungry after going through a season like we did and seeing what took place. They want to get back on the field and want to win.”

Players are excited to do it with Ikenberry back also.

On Tuesday, before a game with the Valley Baseball League’s Harrisonburg Turks, Reifsnider and freshman infielder Bryce Safferwich both said they’re thrilled Ikenberry and his staff are returning.

“I’m just happy to continue to have continuity in the coaching staff,” Reifsnider said. “I think if we would’ve gotten a new coaching staff, it would’ve been different and a lot of things might’ve changed, so I’m just happy to have these guys back leading our program. We’ve definitely taken some steps in the right direction, but this past year was tough with COVID and we had setbacks. But I think we’re headed in the right direction and this coming year I think we’re going to make a big jump.”

Safferwich added: “We love [Ikenberry]. We’re happy and he’s a really good coach.”

Ikenberry is already in the midst of preparing for next season and beyond. He’s hosted recruits, prospect camps, is monitoring the summer ball progress of his roster and has been evaluating transfer portal targets this past week with an eye on the future.

“I’m going to do my job whether I have a 10-year contract or one-year contract,” he said. “It doesn’t change how we go about our business and how we prepare.”