Duke baseball downs Longwood behind Perez home run

Home runs are a rarity at Jack Coombs Field—a notorious pitcher's park—but sophomore Cris Perez delivered a blast Tuesday night that helped the Blue Devils deliver a win.

Duke (29-21) finished its nonconference schedule with a 5-2 victory against Longwood Tuesday evening at Jack Coombs Field. The Blue Devils jumped on the Lancers early and added insurance runs late to protect against a comeback attempt by Longwood (21-29) in the ninth inning.

Duke relied on an exceptional performance from starting pitcher Jack Labosky, who opened the game with three perfect frames and scattered four hits and three strikeouts in five innings of work. The freshman picked up his third win of the season and kept the Lancers at bay once his offense gave him some run support.

"I was really impressed," head coach Chris Pollard said. "[They're a] good offensive club, and he did a good job of filling the two-seam fastball down in the count.... The job he did tonight, and the job by [reliever] Mitch Stallings to bounce back after a couple of tough outings was really the story of the night for us."

Duke (29-21) grabbed an early lead in the bottom of the first inning when freshman Max Miller reached on a single. Perez then stepped up to the plate and hit the first pitch he saw over the left field fence, just above the outstretched glove of Lancer left fielder Kyri Washington.

Perez went 2-for-4 on the day, adding a single in the seventh that put catcher Mike Rosenfeld in scoring position. The sophomore just missed a second blast in his second at-bat, sending a deep fly ball to center that pushed Longwood's center fielder to the warning track in front of the 400-foot sign.

"He's building off the good at-bats he had over the weekend [at Virginia]," Pollard said. "He had the first at-bat, and he crushed that ball to center field—any ballpark in America, that ball is a home run.... He's seeing the ball well, he's really dialed in and it's great to see because he's very capable of this."

The 2-0 lead lasted two full innings before Longwood (21-29) answered with three straight hits that brought Brandon Harvell home to cut the lead in half. The Blue Devils escaped the fourth without allowing the Lancers to even the score and lengthened their lead in the very next inning.

In the bottom of the fifth, Evan Dougherty drew a walk before consecutive hits by Andy Perez and Miller loaded the bases. A Longwood pitching change did not stop the hit parade as Rosenfeld snuck a base hit past the shortstop to score Dougherty and Perez and stretch the lead to 4-1.

Labosky's day on the mound ended after the fifth with the freshman having whittled his ERA down to 3.04.

"You could tell he fatigued in the fourth and fifth inning because he hasn't gone out that far very often," Pollard said. "But what I liked is he did a good job of being able to switch his fastball—he started to elevate. He switched to his offspeed and got us two more innings."

Classmate Luke Whitten took over on the mound but was quickly replaced after walking the first two batters he faced. Stallings entered with the tying run at the plate but quickly induced two flyouts. First baseman Justin Bellinger closed the half-inning with a diving catch on a line drive that might have proved dangerous had it reached the outfield.

Duke added a run in the bottom of the seventh on a Jalen Phillips sacrifice fly. The Lancers threatened with a three-hit rally in the top of the ninth but produced just a single run before closer Kenny Koplove—who played the first eight innings at shortstop—finished out the victory for the Blue Devils.

After securing its 21st nonconference win this season, Duke will conclude its ACC schedule with a three-game series against Wake Forest in Durham to close out the season.