The Duke baseball team's winning streak came to a screeching halt this weekend, as it was swept in a three game series with third-ranked Georgia Tech.
The Blue Devils (20-12, 4-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) managed to keep up with the Yellow Jackets (27-5, 10-2 in the ACC) in a 7-5 loss on Friday, but the series was all down hill from there, as they lost each of the next two games by seven runs.
"When you play the No. 3 team in the country, you have to play at the top of your game," third baseman Sean McNally said. "We played well at times this weekend, but we didn't do it consistently enough to win."
An overall poor performance from the Duke pitching staff led to the sweep. The Duke pitchers consistently fell behind in the count to the potent Georgia Tech lineup, and the Yellow Jackets responded by exploding for 33 runs over the weekend.
The Georgia Tech lineup features three potential first round draft picks in June's major league draft: catcher Jason Varitek, shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and centerfielder Jay Payton.
"We just stunk pitching-wise," pitching coach Bill Hillier said. "We didn't give our team a chance to win from a pitching standpoint. It was a struggle for every one [of the pitchers]. They didn't get many cheap hits off us because their hitters can be aggressive when the count is in their favor."
Josh Shipman, who went the distance and picked up the loss on Friday, was the only effective Duke pitcher all weekend, according to Hillier. He kept Duke in the game on Friday, as the game was tied at five through three innings. But Shipman yielded one run in the fourth inning and another in the seventh to allow the Yellow Jackets to pull out a 7-5 come-from-behind win.
Georgia Tech was led by a strong pitching performance by All-American Brad Rigby, who had 15 strikeouts in the game. Chris Myers came in to pitch the ninth and had two strikeouts while picking up the save.
"We played competitively on Friday, and we knocked Rigby around a little bit," McNally said. "But they were able to raise their level of play on Saturday and we didn't respond."
Saturday's game was never really in question, as Georgia Tech had already staked a 5-0 lead by the top of the fourth, and went on to win 9-2. Payton and Garciaparra each had two RBI.
Both of Duke's runs came following Georgia Tech errors. Ryan Jackson took the loss to drop his record to 3-4.
The Duke bats woke up on Sunday, but the 10 runs it produced were not enough, as Georgia Tech pounded three Duke pitchers for 17 runs.
Varitek, Garciaparra and Payton each had three RBI, and Scott Byers had a home run and five RBI. McNally and Jackson led the Blue Devil offense as both went 3-for-5 with a home run. The three hits extends Jackson's hitting streak to 18 games. McNally also had five RBI.
"We don't deserve to win when you give up 17 runs," said Will Barr, who took his first loss of the season on Sunday. "They make you pay when you fall behind in the count and we let them dictate how the game would go. I think maybe in the back of our heads we were intimidated."
The ACC schedule does not get any easier for the Blue Devils. They play three games this week, including home games Wednesday and Thursday before hosting seventh-ranked Clemson next weekend at Jack Coombes Field. The Tigers are in first place in the ACC with a perfect 12-0 record.
"We expect to play better in the upcoming ACC games," said McNally. "We won't dwell on this past weekend. We're excited about Clemson coming into our park and we want to be the first ACC team to beat them."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.