HARRISONBURG, Va. – The Fairfield University Baseball team dropped the first game of a two-game series with the James Madison Dukes, falling 4-2 on Tuesday. Six different Stags tallied a hit and freshman Jake Noviello set personal-bests in every category in the setback.
 
Making just his second career start, Noviello was impressive over his five innings of work, surrendering just two earned runs against a James Madison team that has now won eight of their last nine games. Noviello struck out six during his outing, setting a new career-high.
 
One of those strikeouts actually led to the Dukes' first run as Trevon Dabney reached first after a wild pitch after striking out. Dabney would steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch. Despite getting another strikeout on the next batter, Fox Semones singled home Dabney to open up the scoring.
 
James Madison would score another run in the second before Fairfield answered in the fifth. The Stags would load the bases with just one out on a Tom Ryan single and walks to Tim Zeng and Justin Guerrera. Jack Gethings would pick up the RBI with a sacrifice fly, but the Dukes would get out of the jam with a fly out.
 
Fairfield would bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth after a Gethings RBI single, but the Dukes would get the next hitter to fly out to end the game.
 
Brendan Harkin and Tristan Amone threw the final two scoreless frames to keep within striking distance, with Amone picking up two strikeouts. Bryson Cafaro also punched out two batters, allowing just one run in his inning of work.
 
The Stags and the Dukes will close out the series on Wednesday at 4pm.