With some extra time off for final exams, Duke head coach Chris Pollard said he thought his team looked crisper when the Blue Devils got back on the diamond for practice Wednesday.
It carried over into Sunday.
The Blue Devils swept a doubleheader from N.C. Central at Jack Coombs Field, winning 6-1 in the opener before taking game two handily, 10-3. Fueled by five RBIs from right fielder Peter Zyla and nine extra-base hits as a team, Duke pounced on the Eagles early in both games and provided its pitching staff with plenty of insurance. The Blue Devils outscored N.C. Central 28-5 in the three games between the cross-town foes this season.
"I thought [the approach at the plate] was very good, and we had a lot of two strike hits," Pollard said. "That's something we've been harping on. We did a really good job of that Friday night in our scrimmage—we had eight two-strike hits in our scrimmage Friday night—and we carried it over into today.
Senior Andrew Istler took the ball in the opener and had a rough first inning, surrendering a run on a pair of singles and a walk before inducing a double-play grounder to escape a jam. But his offense picked him up in the bottom half of the frame, pushing across three runs with an RBI single by Zyla, a sacrifice fly from sophomore Cris Perez and a scorching line drive triple to the wall in right-center field by redshirt sophomore Jalen Phillips.
Staked to a two-run lead, Istler (5-3) settled into a groove. The senior struck out the side in the top of the second and added a fourth consecutive punch-out in the third. Istler faced the minimum during his final four innings of work, finishing with a final line of three hits and one walk against seven strikeouts.
"He had a shaky first inning but then he settled in and pitched great. That's what a veteran guy does," Pollard said. "He found his rhythm in the second inning and really, really got stronger as the outing went."
Pollard brought redshirt senior Dillon Haviland—a weekend starter of late for the Blue Devils—out of the bullpen in the sixth as a split-start, but the southpaw ran into trouble out of the gates. A leadoff walk was compounded by an unsuccessful attempt to force the lead runner at second on a sacrifice bunt. Another sacrifice put two Eagles (19-27) in scoring position with one out, but Haviland erased the threat with a strikeout and a flyout.
He ran into more danger in the seventh, allowing consecutive singles to center to begin the stanza. After a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners, Pollard signaled for senior reliever Sarkis Ohanian, who promptly shut the door on the comeback bid with back-to-back strikeouts featuring devastating slider after slider.
Duke (26-19) plated insurance runs in the seventh and eighth, including an RBI ground-rule double down the left field line by Phillips, one of three Blue Devils with two hits in the opener. Freshman Mitch Stallings fired two scoreless innings to earn the save.
Self-inflicted wounds by N.C. Central allowed Duke to grab an early lead in the bottom of the first in the nightcap. Back-to-back walks to Andy Perez and Max Miller set up Zyla for a two-run double the other way. The Blue Devils tacked on a third run an inning later on a sacrifice fly by center fielder Evan Dougherty—who had three of them across the two games.
Sophomore Bailey Clark took the mound for the Blue Devils and tossed six scoreless frames, retiring the side in order in the second, third and fourth. After not escaping the fourth in his last start against Virginia Tech, Clark (3-4) allowed just two hits and and a walk, picking up four strikeouts along the way.
Pollard said he was proud of the Asheville, N.C., native's performance, which came a day after the two had a "hard conversation."
"[We talked about] mental toughness. I have the ability to excel but sometimes it's my mind that holds me back," Clark said. "Being able to come out and respond to that conversation was good."
Duke got another run in the fifth on an RBI single by Miller—who also made two impressive defensive plays in the nightcap, ranging and diving to both sides to pick a grounder and fire to first for the out—and exploded for three in the sixth. Junior Kenny Koplove—who went 5-for-8 in the two games—led off with a single, followed by an opposite-field double by first baseman Justin Bellinger.
After another Dougherty sacrifice fly, Andy Perez doubled and Miller picked up another single. Zyla then brought home Bellinger with a base knock to right.
"I thought I was seeing the ball really well today. I was seeing more fastballs than I did in the last series against Virginia Tech," said Zyla, who finished 4-for-7 at the plate. "I was just looking to put the ball in play and not do too much."
Eight of the nine Blue Devils in the batting order had at least one hit in game two.
Things got as interesting as a 10 run lead could get in the ninth, as the Eagles batted around and plated three runs against three Blue Devil relievers. Ohanian went back to the bullpen to get loose for potentially his second action of the day, but Koplove—typically Duke's closer—got the final two outs of the game in a non-save situation.
The freshness that Pollard saw from some additional recovery time is something he expects to see continue now that school—and finals—are done.
"Guys will eat better, they'll get more sleep. A lot of guys were still grinding it out with exams until about 10 o'clock [Saturday night]," he said. "It wasn't easy. Guys will get some good rest tonight."
The Blue Devils face a quick turnaround Tuesday evening at Davidson.
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