In a game full of frustration and missed opportunities, the Blue Devils came through in the nick of time to stay alive before securing a critical extra-inning win.
Sophomore Peter Zyla hit a game-tying RBI single with two outs in the ninth inning and classmate Justin Bellinger drove in the game-winning run in the 10th to lift Duke to a dramatic 2-1 win Thursday evening at Charles L. Cost Field in Pittsburgh. The victory moves the Blue Devils one step closer to clinching a spot in next week’s ACC tournament and improves their chances of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1961.
Sophomore Jack Laboksy led off the top of the ninth inning with a walk for Duke, but Panther ace T.J. Zeuch struck out the next two batters to come one out away from a complete-game shutout. But designated hitter Cris Perez hit a first-pitch single to bring Zyla to the plate, and the Alpharetta, Ga., native slapped the first pitch he saw into left field to score pinch-runner Kennie Taylor.
“That was a first-pitch breaking ball that [Perez] saw and drove into left field to put the runner in scoring position right there. It was a really good job of hitting,” Blue Devil head coach Chris Pollard said. “We were swinging and missing a lot at the breaking ball early, so he started to throw it more and more, and we just made a decision to sit back and look for that pitch.”
With the game tied, Duke (32-21, 13-15 in the ACC) was not out of the woods yet, and Pittsburgh nearly won the game in the bottom of the ninth.
Charles Leblanc led off the inning with a drive to the outfield that looked sure to be an extra-base hit, but he did not touch first base on his way to second for the double. The Blue Devils appealed the play at first base, and Leblanc was called out.
“He kind of stumbled as he was rounding first base. It was a tremendous job by our bench—they were all over it.” Pollard said. “They saw it, reacted to it right away, pointed it out, and the umpire was on it too. It doesn’t matter if we see it if the umpire doesn’t see it.”
The Panthers (25-25, 10-17) rebounded from the baserunning miscue to load the bases with two walks and a single, causing Pollard to replace closer Mitch Stallings with freshman reliever Al Pesto. In the most important situation of his young career, Pesto retired Ron Sherman and Caleb Parry to strand the winning run 90 feet away.
Duke had the bases empty and two outs in the top of the 10th frame when the Blue Devils staged another two-out rally off Pittsburgh reliever Yaya Chentouf. Freshman Chris Proctor hit an infield single on an 0-2 pitch and advanced to second on a throwing error by Leblanc at shortstop and Ryan Day worked a walk to set the table for Bellinger’s first-pitch single up the middle.
In the bottom of the 10th, David Yanni led off with an infield single and advanced into scoring position with two outs to bring Leblanc—the Panthers’ leading hitter with a .405 batting average—to the plate. Leblanc worked the count full in a long at-bat against Pesto before flying out to center field to end the game.
“[Pesto] is really attacking the strike zone with really good stuff,” Pollard said. “Leblanc spoiled pitch after pitch after pitch, and to get him out with the tying run at second base—just a great job of being in the moment.”
Before Zyla’s ninth-inning single, Duke was 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, squandering several opportunities to get on the scoreboard. Sophomore Max Miller got picked off at second base with one out in the third frame, the first of three times the Blue Devils had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs but could not score.
Duke had runners on second and third base with one out in the fourth frame, but sophomore Michael Smiciklas and Perez both struck out to end the inning, and freshman Zack Kone grounded into a double play with runners on first and second to end the top of the seventh.
Zeuch struck out 12 batters in nine innings, and when cleanup hitter Nick Yarnell hit a solo home run off Blue Devil starter Kellen Urbon in the bottom of the seventh, it looked like that would hold up as the only offensive production of the night. But Urbon shut Pittsburgh down for the rest of his outing, keeping Duke within striking distance when he exited after allowing just five hits in eight innings on the mound.
“He had all three pitches working. That was the best his slider’s been maybe all season, so he was really a three-pitch guy,” Pollard said. “Kellen pitched an unbelievable ballgame. He matched Zeuch pitch for pitch.”
The Blue Devils can clinch a berth in the ACC tournament with a win against the Panthers Friday at 6 p.m. in the second game of the series, and losses by both Notre Dame and Boston College would also lock them into the 10-team field.
Duke has a chance at moving into sixth in the conference and bypassing Tuesday’s ACC tournament play-in games if it sweeps Pittsburgh and gets help from No. 23 Clemson and Georgia Tech losing this weekend.
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