The Virginia softball team looks to gain a pair of victories in today's midweek doubleheader at James Madison University. The Cavaliers were victorious in last week's contests at Radford as they swept the Highlanders by scores of 2-1 and 9-1.
The Cavaliers (10-22, 0-6) were not able to carry that success into the weekend, though, as they were dominated by Maryland, losing by scores of 15-1, 8-3 and 11-1.
"We have to take advantage of the midweek games when we're not playing ACC teams," senior pitcher Coty Tolar said. "We did that last week at Radford and we had great results, but we just didn't bring it into the weekend."
James Madison (16-11, 1-2 Colonial Athletic Conference) is yet another roadblock in the way of the Cavaliers as they try to get things turned around this season. The Dukes have a formidable pitching staff led by sophomore Meredith Felts, who is 7-2 with a 2.14 ERA.
"JMU has a really good pitching staff," Virginia coach Karen Johns said. "They throw the ball very well, so we have our work cut out for us on offense to put the ball in play and score some runs. Obviously, we've been struggling, so it's going to be another challenge for us."
The Cavaliers found it difficult to produce runs against the solid Maryland pitching staff, and the Dukes have a staff of similar credentials. Virginia produced only 1.67 runs per game over the Maryland series and managed just 5.33 hits per game.
In addition to Felts, James Madison's pitching staff has two pitchers with .500 winning percentages in sophomore Jenny Clohan (6-6, 1.37 ERA) and freshman Branden Moss (3-3, 1.37 ERA).
Offensively, the Dukes are led by senior shortstop Katie George (.358 batting average) and junior utility player Jenn Chavez (.329 batting average). Chavez leads the team inRBIs (24) and home runs (4).
The Dukes' schedule does not include many formidable opponents, but they have had three common adversaries with the Cavaliers this season in Texas Tech, Jacksonville and East Carolina. James Madison was 1-3 against these teams, with the win coming against Jacksonville in a 2-1 contest in Florida. The Cavaliers were 1-4 against the same competition, with their lone win also coming against Jacksonville in a 10-2 blowout in Florida.
Offensively, the Cavaliers are still led by freshman first baseman Kelly Haller with a team-leading .419 batting average. Haller also has 30 RBIs, 21 more than senior catcher Amy McKean, who is second on the team with nine andcurrently inactive due to a torn ACL.Senior designated hitter Brooke Sorber, who had been coming on as of late, held steady through the weekend series with Maryland and has a batting average of .319.
Last year in Charlottesville, Virginia swept a doubleheader from the Dukes by a score of 4-0 and 4-3.
The Cavaliers are riding on rough times right now and are playing one game at a time, taking every opponent seriously. "We need to make sure we go out and play hard against JMU and work on what we will work on in practice and take it into the game at JMU," Tolar said."We can't overlook anybody at this point."
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