With a pair of midweek contests against in-state opponents and an upcoming weekend series with the nation's top-ranked team, Duke needed to keep its momentum going.
Tuesday night—thanks to a hot-swinging lineup—the Blue Devils did just that.
Duke went on the road and dominated Davidson 13-3 at Wilson Field, picking up its eighth win in its last 10 games. From the start, the Blue Devil bats were rolling—they knocked in five runs in the game's first two innings—giving Duke an early 5-0 lead that it would never relinquish. The Blue Devils combined for a season-high 18 hits, and six different players collected multiple hits, led by a 4-for-5 performance from right fielder Peter Zyla.
"The message to the guys was simple—we had to focus on competing against ourselves and the standard of excellence we set for ourselves,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. "I think we’ve done a good job of staying in the moment [and] being dialed in to what we’re doing."
The first inning for the Blue Devils (18-15) was simply a continuation of their recent offensive success. Zyla, Justin Bellinger, Chris Proctor and Jack Labosky each entered the day batting better than .320 in the team's last nine games and the heart of Duke's order was back at it again Tuesday.
Four of the first six batters notched a hit in the top of the first inning, headlined by a two-run single into right field by Bellinger and capped by a fielder's choice from freshman shortstop Zach Kone that put the lead at 4-0.
Wildcat starting pitcher Allen Barry came back out to toss the second inning, but could not stop the bleeding from the opening frame. A double by sophomore Max Miller followed by RBI single from freshman Jimmy Herron quickly extended the Blue Devil lead to five.
And from there, the rout was on.
"Anytime you're in a midweek [game] and know you're going to split the game up with a number of pitchers, it's definitely to your advantage to play with a lead," Pollard said. "I really like the productivity we're getting out of the bottom half of our lineup. Nine hits out of six through nine in our lineup—that's a really good balance."
Duke put crooked numbers on the scoreboard in three separate innings, scored at least one run in five of its nine at-bats and tallied four stolen bases on the night. The Blue Devils tacked on insurance runs in both the fifth and sixth innings, but each time, Davidson (18-15) seemed to have an answer—matching Duke's scoring in each frame.
With a five-run ninth inning, though, the Blue Devils salted the game away.
On top of a stellar offensive performance, Duke got effective pitching from starter Kellen Urbon—who tossed four shutout innings, surrendering just four hits and striking out a pair—as well as the combined efforts of five different relievers.
"I can't say enough about the job [Urbon's] done," Pollard said. "He's been a stabilizing force for our rotation. He's done everything we've asked him to do. He's been a team-first guy...I'm very proud of him."
The graduate student improved his record to 4-1 on the season and also lowered his ERA to just 1.88. The Blue Devil bullpen allowed only seven hits in five innings of relief and kept a streaking Wildcat offense at bay.
With Pollard using numerous pitchers to finish Tuesday's game and another contest Wednesday evening at home against N.C. Central, he will have to manage his staff's innings, especially in advance of No. 1 Miami's visit to Durham this coming weekend.
"We held back a number of our left-handed pitchers because we felt like the lefties were a very good matchup for [N.C.] Central," Pollard said. "The top four hitters on [their] team are left-handed hitters, so we wanted to be able to neutralize those bats."
For just the second time this season, Duke will play back-to-back midweek games. In early March, the Blue Devils toppled Davidson in their Tuesday night game, but lost to Campbell the following night.
This time, Duke hopes to avoid making that a trend.
"Our focus right now is on a very good N.C. Central team that's playing very well right now," Pollard said. "We'll focus in on the things we have to do to get ready to play tomorrow. We won't start thinking about this weekend until we compete in tomorrow night's ballgame."
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Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."