The year is 1962--John F. Kennedy is in the White House and the Duke baseball team defeats Clemson at Clemson.
Fast forward to 1993. A JFK-wannabe is in the the White House and for the first time in 31 years, the Blue Devils have defeated Clemson at Clemson.
On Saturday, Duke broke a 27-game losing streak at Clemson with a dramatic 7-6 victory at Tiger field. The Blue Devils rallied for four runs over the last three innings and then held off a bases-loaded Tiger rally in the bottom of the ninth inning.
On Sunday, however, things were back to their normal 30 year trend as Clemson thumped Duke, 16-7.
Going into today's makeup of Friday's snowed-out game, the Blue Devils are now 8-2, 1-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference while Clemson is 4-1, 1-1.
No matter what Duke does today, however, the real story is that the Blue Devils won at Clemson at all. Yet, to hear baseball head coach Steve Traylor describe his team's historic victory over the No. 22 Tigers, Saturday brought nothing more than a good win for his team.
"It feels great to beat [Clemson] regardless, especially at home," Traylor said. "It was a great win."
Traylor didn't even know that Duke had a 27-game losing streak at Clemson until assistant sports information director Warren Miller told him afterwards.
Early on in Saturday's game, it appeared as if the woes in the Palmetto state would continue for Duke as Clemson jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
Duke answered Clemson with three runs in the top of the fifth inning but the Tigers regained the lead in the bottom of the inning, scoring two runs of their own.
Duke starter Scott Schoeneweis, pitching on just three days rest, made the first ACC start of his career. Though Schoeneweis, who entered the game with a 3-0 record, was knocked around a bit by Clemson, Traylor said that he was pleased with the performance of his freshman.
"He pitched well enough to get us through 4-2/3 innings," Traylor said. "I think he had a very respectable ACC start."
Josh Shipman replaced Schoeneweis in the fifth and calmed things down for Duke until giving way to closer Ryan Jackson in the seventh.
In the top of the seventh, Duke scored a run and then added another in the eighthto tie the score at five. Clemson, however, looked poised to regain the lead when the Tigers loaded the bases with no one out in its half of the eighth.
Duke brought its infield in and second baseman Jeff Piscorik fielded a ground ball and threw home to prevent a run from scoring, picking up the first out of the inning. Jackson then got the next batter to ground out to shortstop Mike Olexa for an inning-escaping double play.
That twin killing set the stage for the drama of the ninth inning. Duke scored two runs in the top of the inning to take the lead for the first time in the game. Ray Farmer singled and then moved to second on Luis Duarte's sacrifice. Scott Pinoni then walked and Jackson singled to load the bases.
Sean McNally plated the go-ahead run when he walked on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded. Duke added what proved to be the winning run when Piscorik hit a sacrifice fly to make it 7-5.
Clemson had one more chance in the bottom of the inning, however, to preserve its streak of dominance at home over Duke.
"Everyone was hanging on every pitch," Traylor said.
The Tigers had men on first and second with no one out but Jackson struck out the next two batters.
Clemson scored a run, then a walk put the winning run on second for the Tigers. Jackson got a Clemson batter to hit a slow roller down the first base line. Pinoni charged the line and, throwing behind himself to Jackson, got the runner out on a bang-bang play.
Clemson pounded out 15 hits on Saturday but left 17 men on base. That would not be the case on Sunday.
"The big difference between today and yesterday was they hit better with guys in scoring position," Traylor said.
The Tigers, behind 19 hits, would drive in their base runners on their way to the 16-7 win.
According to Traylor, though, Duke was still in the game although Clemson built a 6-1 lead going into the fifth inning. Unlike Saturday, the fifth inning proved to be the backbreaker for the Blue Devils as Clemson sent 12 men to the plate and scored seven runs.
"That was it," Traylor said. "[Up to that point] we were hanging in there giving ourselves a chance to win."
Duke starter Craig Starman, the first of six Blue Devil pitchers used on the day by Traylor, took the loss, dropping to 1-2 on the year.
Offensive performances of note on Sunday for Duke: Pinoni went 3-5 with two RBIs and a home run while Casey Jowers rapped a pinch-hit, three-run home run.
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