After a mistake-filled weekend sweep at the hands of then-No. 11 North Carolina, Duke could not end its skid against another in-state foe.
East Carolina rallied from a three-run deficit to edge the Blue Devils 8-6 Tuesday night at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, scoring two runs in the seventh inning and three in the eighth after Duke jumped out to a 6-3 lead. The Pirates outhit the Blue Devils 15-7, and catcher Travis Watkins smacked a two-run double into the gap in left-center to put East Carolina in front for good.
“There in the later innings, what we were victimized by is we had opportunities to execute two-strike counts, and we didn’t do it. We gave up three 0-2 RBI base-hits,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. “We just didn’t get the pitches to the spots that we needed to in those counts, and that’s on us. Not taking anything away from what they did, but at the same time we’ve got to execute to our spot.”
Sophomore reliever Ryan Day retired the first two batters of the seventh frame, but the Pirates mounted a two-out rally with three singles and a walk to trim the deficit to one.
Senior southpaw Nick Hendrix came on to record the final out of the seventh to strand two runners, but immediately ran into trouble in the next inning. Jeff Nelson and Luke Bolka each hit singles with no outs, and Watkins cleared the bases before advancing to third on another single and scoring on a squeeze bunt by Eric Tyler.
The Blue Devils (10-11) went down quietly in the eighth and ninth and did not get a hit in the last four frames as rookie Cam Colmore threw 2 1/3 shutout innings in relief to get the win.
“That’s just baseball. Sometimes you have guys who come out of the pen and they just have our number,” redshirt junior Jalen Phillips said. “We have great hitters, so I don’t think it’s anything we should worry about.”
East Carolina (14-7) struck first to put Duke in an early hole for the third straight game, as Kirk Morgan blooped an RBI single into right-center field. The ball landed just out of reach of a diving Evan Dougherty while Charlie Yorgen scored from first.
The Blue Devils responded right away, evening the score in the bottom of the first when freshman Jimmy Herron led off with a double and Pirates southpaw Nick Durazo threw sophomore Max Miller’s sacrifice bunt past his first baseman into right field. Miller reached second on the error and Herron easily trotted around to score.
The Pirates took another one-run lead in the third on an RBI single by Watkins, but Duke once again had an immediate answer, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the inning though the ball left the infield just once.
Phillips legged out an infield single to lead off, and Tyler could not handle a grounder by Herron at third base. Both runners advanced on Miller’s second sacrifice bunt, and Phillips scored on an RBI groundout by sophomore Jack Labosky before junior Cris Perez smacked a go-ahead double to deep right field. The Miami native was 2-for-4 at the plate and has a team-leading six doubles in the last five games.
East Carolina tied the score at three with a run in the fourth, but Phillips helped the Blue Devils regain the lead with a two-run single in the bottom half of the inning after freshmen Zack Kone and Griffin Conine reached base on a single and a walk, respectively, and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Dougherty.
Phillips started and played first base for the first time since March 2 against Campbell and took advantage of the opportunity with his second multi-hit game of the year.
“During [batting practice, hitting coach Jason] Stein told me that I might be playing today, and he said not 100 percent, but just be ready if you have an opportunity,” Phillips said. “[I was] just looking for something middle of the plate to drive, just kind of stay simple like Coach Stein teaches us.”
Duke added another run in the next inning when Labosky led off with a bloop double that dropped into left field. The Clovis, Calif., native scored when Tyler’s throw to first sailed too high on a ground ball off the bat of Day.
The Blue Devils took advantage of four errors by the Pirates to score three unearned runs, but East Carolina’s defense was mistake-free the rest of the way.
“We were a lot better putting the ball in play and using our speed,” Pollard said. “We had a lot of pressure plays where we forced them to make mistakes, and that got our offense going. That needs to be a hallmark of what we do.”
The Blue Devils will leave the DBAP for the first time in more than three weeks this weekend, opening a series against Wake Forest at Gene Hooks Field in Winston-Salem, N.C., Friday at 6 p.m.
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