HARRISONBURG, Va. – For the third time this season, the Towson softball team was leading nationally-ranked James Madison going into the sixth inning, but once again the Dukes rallied late to defeat the Tigers. No. 18/17 James Madison used a Hannah Hayes game-winning home run in the seventh inning to walk off with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Towson in the opening game of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Softball Championship on Wednesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Park.
 
The Dukes, the top-seed and host of this year's CAA Championship, improve to 45-6 on the year. They also extended their nation-leading win streak to 36 games. The Tigers, who had won 24 of their last 29 games entering the tournament, fall to 35-21 this season.

Towson will play next on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. against the loser of No. 2 Hofstra and No. 3 Elon. James Madison will play the winner of Hofstra-Elon at noon on Thursday.

"They're a good team and we obviously knew who we were coming in here to play," said Towson Head Coach Lisa Costello. "We were just trying to do what we needed to do to make ourselves right, and if we did that we were going to win the ballgame. We didn't pull it out though and now we have to win two games tomorrow to get to Friday. We proved we could do it last year. We came out, we lost a tough game last year, came out and won two games on Thursday. We're planning on playing on Friday, so we've got to get it done tomorrow."

JMU took an early 1-0 lead on its second at-bat of the game. Erica Field lined a triple down the right field line that took a bounce into foul territory. After an errant throw from right, Field came home off the throwing error for the game's first run.
 
The Tigers erased the deficit in the top of the fourth off the bat of CAA All-Rookie selection Shelby Stracher. With two outs, senior Missy McCormick singled to left field to extend the frame, and Stracher followed with a two-run home run to deep to left center. It was her eighth home run of the season and gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead. It also marked the first time that JMU had trailed in any game since April 4.
 
The Dukes came back to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth. After Niki Prince drew a lead-off walk, Field laced a single to right, moving Prince over to third. Freshman Megan Good brought Prince home with a sacrifice fly to right to square the contest.
 
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Hayes took a 1-0 delivery deep to center field for her third home run of the season to end the game and advance JMU to the winner's bracket.
 
McCormick took the loss, dropping to 19-7 on the year after surrendering three runs (two earned), five hits and two walks in 6.1 innings pitched. Stracher led the Tiger offense with her two RBIs off the homer and junior Olivia Yarbrough reached base twice.
 
Good remained unbeaten this season for the Dukes, improving to 27-0 after allowing two runs and four hits, to go with four strikeouts in her seven innings of work.


-TowsonTigers.com-