Duke baseball falls at East Carolina, readies for Virginia Tech series

Freshman Peter Zyla went 3-for-5 in Wednesday's loss at East Carolina and will look to spark a scuffling Blue Devil offense against the Hokies this weekend.
Freshman Peter Zyla went 3-for-5 in Wednesday's loss at East Carolina and will look to spark a scuffling Blue Devil offense against the Hokies this weekend.

Mired in an offensive slump, the Blue Devils may get just what the doctor ordered this weekend.

After suffering a 3-2 loss on a walk-off single in the 10th inning Wednesday at East Carolina, Duke returns home to Jack Coombs Stadium this weekend to take on Virginia Tech in a three-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday in the opener, followed by 1 p.m. starts both Saturday and Sunday. The Hokies have the ACC's second-worst ERA, which could help rejuvenate a Duke offense that has scored just eight runs in its last six games—five of which have been Blue Devil losses.

"If they have an Achilles' heel—they certainly have been a good team offensively—they have been prone to give up runs on the mound," Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. "We understand that you're probably going to play in some higher-scoring games when you play Virginia Tech. They're going to get their runs but they're going to give up some runs."

The Blue Devils (22-18, 5-15 in the ACC) had multiple opportunities to light up the scoreboard Wednesday at Clark-LeClair Stadium in Greenville, N.C., but could not capitalize.

Led by Peter Zyla's 3-for-5 night at the plate, Duke managed nine hits in the first five innings against Pirate starter Kirk Morgan, but wound up with just two runs to show for it. The Blue Devils loaded the bases with nobody out in the second but came away empty, finally pushing across a run on an RBI double by Jalen Phillips to tie the game in the fourth. After East Carolina (26-16) answered in the bottom half, the Blue Devils retied the game in the fifth thanks to a single from designated hitter Cris Perez.

From there, the Duke bats fell silent. The Blue Devils mustered just one hit in the final five frames even as the bullpen kept the Pirates at bay. Pollard said he felt his team trying too hard to be the hero in the batter's box, producing long swings that jammed hitters and ended in harmless pop-ups.

"What I saw [in the] sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth innings was guys trying to do too much. I saw us get in a lot of good counts—meaning we got in favorable counts to hit—we got fastballs and we didn't do a lot with them," Pollard said. "It wasn't a matter of lack of focus, it wasn't a matter of guys not being dialed in, more a fact of guys just trying to do too much and they're pressing a little bit offensively."

East Carolina finally woke up in the 10th, walking off on a Luke Lowery RBI single for the team's second consecutive win in its last at-bat. The Pirates topped N.C. State in dramatic fashion Tuesday on a walk-off single from Morgan.

Sophomore Bailey Clark—Duke's normal Sunday starter—took the hill Wednesday but threw just one inning, needing just 13 pitches to put up a scoreless frame. Pollard said the start functioned as a bullpen session for Clark, seeking to get the Asheville, N.C., native some work after his last scheduled start April 19 against Clemson was canceled due to rain. Clark will take the ball again for the Blue Devils in Sunday's series finale against the Hokies.

After Clark departed, six more Duke hurlers took the mound, none of whom worked more than 1 2/3 innings. With a pitching staff depleted by four season-ending injuries, Pollard has had no choice but to go bullpen-by-committee during his team's midweek games in order to preserve relievers for ACC contests on the weekends.

"It's a product of necessity, not of any sort of mad science. We're just so thin from an injury standpoint that we're basically splitting up the midweek game with the relievers from the weekend," Pollard said. "Would I love to be able to start a guy on a Tuesday and say, 'Hey, I'll see you in the sixth inning, I'll come get the ball from you after the sixth or seventh inning?'" Absolutely. But losing three weekend arms over the last 10 months, we don't have that luxury."

Conner Stevens and Luke Whitten each allowed a run for the Blue Devils early on, but freshman Ryan Day, senior Sarkis Ohanian and freshman Mitch Stallings combined to throw 4 2/3 scoreless innings to send the game to extras. Junior closer Kenny Koplove was tagged with the loss after surrendering the Lowery single in the 10th.

Duke will shake up its usual weekend rotation against Virginia Tech (19-22, 8-12), moving up Saturday starter Andrew Istler for Friday's series opener and pushing back Dillon Haviland to Saturday. Istler has been Duke's best weekend starter of late, entering the series with a 3.50 ERA in 61 2/3 innings pitched.

"We've been waiting for an opportunity to get Istler to Friday because he's been so good and he's gotten so deep in ballgames," Pollard said. "His pitch count had been elevated and he was dealing with the rib injury from the Pitt series that we just didn't feel like pitching him on short rest was fair to him, but because he had the shorter start on Saturday, it made sense this was the week where we could push him up and get him on Friday."

The Hokies boast powerful hitters in Brendon Hayden, Erik Payne and Alex Perez—the trio has combined for 19 home runs and 59 extra-base hits—but have been weighed down by their pitching staff for much of the year. Virginia Tech has a team ERA of 5.59, with senior Sean Keselica the only member of the team to post a sub-3.00 ERA. The southpaw will take the ball Sunday opposite Clark.

Pollard said Keselica locates well in the bottom of the zone, and his Blue Devils will need to stay patient and look for their pitch against the left-hander. After six games of low offensive output, getting into the Hokie bullpen could open up the floodgates, but only if Duke takes the right approach up to the plate.

"We have to relax as a team. It's got to start with me and guys have to understand that you go through things like this," Pollard said. "The thing you have to do in this game is you have to play with a very calm motor. You have to have energy and effort, don't get me wrong, but you have to be able to dial down the anxiety and just play the game loose."

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