HARRISONBURG, Va. – The Hartford baseball team dropped its series opener at James Madison on Friday by an 11-3 final. For the Hawks, Ryan Lukach, Brady Sheetz and rookie Nick Dummar all recorded RBI's. Hartford falls to 0-5 overall while the Dukes improve to 3-6 on the season.

Hartford finished the game with four hits, while giving up 11 to James Madison. Four different players recorded the hits for the Hawks with Adam Touhey, Trey Stover and Bill Walker joining Sheetz. On the hill, Hartford starter Brian Hunter dropped his second decision of the season. The starter went five innings and allowed seven JMU runs, five earned, on four hits. He also finished with four strikeouts and walked six batters.

Ryan Carter and Justin Robarge also saw time on the hill for Hartford. Carter pitched a pair of middle relief innings and allowed four earned runs on seven hits. He also struck out two batters. Robarge pitched one inning for Hartford and faced just two batters, forcing the first into a fly ball and the second into a double play to close out the eighth inning.

After a relatively quiet first nine outs, James Madison puts its first runs on the board with two in the bottom of the second. Both came as unearned runs against Hawks starter Hunter despite allowing both runners aboard with walks. Both runs scored on a throwing error on the Hawks short stop with two outs recorded.

JMU added two more runs in the bottom of the third with second baseman Casey Goss knocking in both runs courtesy of a double down the left field line. That hit allowed Johnny Bladel and Colby Roberts to score after both reached on walks.

Hartford managed its first run of the game in the top of the fourth inning when James Alfonso was able to score from first on a double to left field from Sheetz. The Dukes continued a streak of scoring runs in consecutive innings with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Bladel, who scored in the third, recorded the first RBI of the inning when he drove in Roberts on a single through the left side. Ty McFarland and Matt Tenaglia recorded the other two RBI's with Tenaglia sacrificing himself for the team.

Hartford followed up three straight scoreless innings for either squad by adding a single run in the top of the eighth. Walker opened up the inning with a single up the middle off of Dukes reliever Patrick Toohers. With a wild pitch allowing Walker to take third, rookie third baseman Dummar knocked in his first run of the year on an infield groundout.

The Dukes answered that single Hartford run with four more in their half of the eighth. The first six batters in the inning for James Madison all reached safely, five with hits, including a leadoff triple from Roberts. Tenaglia recorded his third and fourth RBI's in the innings, while Chris Hanson and Chad Carroll each drove in single runs.

Hartford added one more run in the ninth. Touhey opened up the final half inning with a double down the left field line, his first extra base hit of the season. Touhey was able to score on a walk issued to Lukach after Sheetz and Alfonso both reach base on a walk and hit batter, respectively.

Hartford and James Madison will continue the four-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park.