By Bridget Dolan
It was overcast and chilly at the Delaware Softball Diamond, but that didn’t stop James Madison from bringing the heat and solidly cooking the Blue Hens.
Friday’s double header was a game of hitting. The first game had three home runs, two from James Madison University and one from Delaware’s Brooke Glanden. The Blue Hens hit the ball, sparingly yet hard, but they were outplayed by the Dukes in both games.
Anna Steinmetz at bat. Courtesy of Mark Campbell and Blue Hen Athletics.
Coming into the series, the Dukes were on a 13-game win streak in addition to being 41-7 overall and 17-1 in CAA play, with their only conference loss coming from Elon University. Delaware was 22-26 overall and 7-11 in CAA play, and the team is ranked sixth in the conference, tied with Hofstra University.
“We knew that they were going to be a good team and everything, but we just put that aside and knew that if we played our type of ball, we would be just fine,” Glanden said.
It was far from an even matchup, but that didn’t stop the Blue Hens from playing their game, despite several calls of illegal pitches and errors from the umpires.
“We had some missed opportunities in both games where, you know, if you play well 90% of the time, if you 10% of the time you don’t, you give a great team that opening, they’re going to take it,” Head Coach Jen Steele said.
The final score at the end of the first half of the double header was 5-1, James Madison. Glanden was responsible for Delaware’s only run of the game at the bottom of the fourth inning. The first game ended with James Madison leading Delaware in hits, 7-2.
Three of James Madison’s runs were scored via two home runs from Madison Naujokas and Sara Jubas, and the other two were both stolen by Logan Newton.
James Madison destroyed the Blue Hens in the second game, beating them 7-1 and leading in hits, 9-3. Four of James Madison’s runs were scored in the fourth inning. Delaware’s only run of the game came in that same inning, scored after Chayanna Gallardo was hit by a pitch while the bases were loaded.
The goal of this game, Steele said, was “building their confidence and understanding that if they show up and they play clean softball, they can compete.”
This series is also senior catcher Anna Steinmetz’s last home games before graduating. Steinmetz a consistent power hitter who bats from the “clean up” spot and the Delaware softball record holder for all time home runs. She notched her 200th career hit in Friday’s double header, gaining two of Delaware’s three hits during the second game in her two times at bat.
Friday, May 3 was Delaware softball’s penultimate games of the regular season. They closed out non-conference play on Wednesday with a win over La Salle University, and they will be closing out the regular season in the series against James Madison University.
The team’s next game will be Saturday, at 12 p.m., and the team will be celebrating Senior Day and Bark in the Park with the Puppy Raisers of UD. The team is currently 22-28 on the season heading into their last game. The CAA tournament will be from May 8 to May 10 in Harrisburg, Va., and Delaware, while close to missing it, has not formally been eliminated yet.