HARRISONBURG, Va. - The Georgia Southern baseball team fell 15-6 to the James Madison Dukes in a Sun Belt Conference series opener on Friday night at Eagle Field at Veteran's Memorial Park.

Georgia Southern (19-18, 9-7 SBC) threw the first punch in the top of the first inning when JD Kaiser slapped a two-RBI double to right field to score Sam Blancato and Jarrett Brown, taking a quick 2-0 lead.

The Dukes (22-15, 8-8 SBC) responded with a five-run inning in the bottom of the second, which included three home runs from the JMU bats. One more HR came in the bottom of the third inning to take the lead up to 6-2.

The Eagles scored four runs in the top of the fourth inning to tie up the game, starting with a sacrifice fly from Jarrett Jenkins to bring Sean White home. Cade Parker made it a one-run game with a two-run homer of his own, and Blancato knotted the game up at six-all with an RBI-double to bring home Josh Tate.

JMU was able to break the tie with a two-RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning, then broke the game open in the bottom of the eighth inning with eight runs, all unearned after a series of Eagle errors. After the dust settled, the Dukes came away with a 15-6 victory in game one.

Max Kuhle was tagged with his third win of the season while Mitchell Gross was given the loss in the contest.

UP NEXT
The Eagles look to even the series up against JMU on Saturday evening. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.