Crowded at the top: Rams flood CAA batting leaders

James Madison baseball coach Spanky MacFarland may have a hard time breaking this to his team as the Dukes prep for their weekend series against VCU, which starts on Friday.

MacFarland, who’s written a couple of books on baseball in his nine years at JMU, will have to inform his players that about half the Rams’ lineup accounts for about 40 percent of the CAA’s best hitters so far this season.

VCU has staked claim on four of the CAA’s top 10 spots in batting average.

Sophomore second baseman Scott Sizemore is hitting .472. Junior center fielder and newly crowned CAA Player of the Week Joe Meador is right behind him, boosting his average up to .438 with a monster weekend at Towson.

Outfielders Trai Harris and Kwan Evans are tied for eighth with UNC Wilmington’s Tim Preston, hitting .364. As a team, the Rams are hitting .331, tops in the conference.

“We’ve got a swagger right now,” Harris said.

The Rams are 14-5 overall and 2-1 in the CAA. This weekend will be their second conference set of the season.

VCU won two of three games against James Madison last year at the Diamond. This weekend will be the first time Sizemore, Harris and Evans get a crack at Long Field.

“I heard they’ve got kind of a small yard,” Harris said of JMU’s home field. “That’s bad news for them.”