The Duke baseball team finally got some good weather for this weekend's series with the Campbell Camels. Unfortunately, it also got a loss on its previously unblemished record.
The Blue Devils pounded Campbell 5-1 on Friday in Buies Creek, in a game which saw every Duke batter get a hit. The Blue Devils, however, were not able to turn hits into runs at home. The team left a total of 12 runners on base in a 4-2 loss on Saturday at sunny Jack Coombs field. The loss drops Duke's record to 6-1, while Campbell (1-4) picked up its first win of the season.
The Duke offensive barrage on Friday was led by outfielders Mike King and Adam Geis, who had three hits each. Senior righthander Craig Starman logged his third win of the season by scattering only four singles over seven and two-thirds innings.
Down 1-0 after an unearned Campbell run in the third inning, Duke tied the game in the fourth on an RBI groundout from freshman designated hitter Marc Ludvigsen. An inning later, Duke went on top for good after freshman rightfielder Jordan Litrownik led off the inning with a double, and then scored on a single by King. King then scored after Campbell pitcher Kevin Dail made two throwing errors. Duke sophomore catcher Gregg Maluchnik drove in a run in the seventh, and Ludvigsen tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly in the eighth to give Duke a four-run lead.
Duke then turned to its bullpen to seal up the victory. Senior lefthander David Darwin entered the game in the bottom of the eighth with two outs, the bases loaded and Camel cleanup hitter Willy Kingsbury at the plate. Darwin got Kingsbury to groundout to first to end the inning.
It appeared that Duke's pitching would continue to dominate the Camels on Saturday when senior lefthander Scott Schoeneweis started the game by striking out the first three batters he faced. Campbell, however, found ways to manufacture runs throughout the game. The Camels scored in the third inning when Litrownik dropped a fly ball in rightfield, allowing a run to score from second. Campbell then scored two runs in the fourth by using an infield single and a sacrifice bunt to advance baserunners.
Down 4-0 in the eighth, Duke kept itself in the game when Ludvigsen, pinch hitting, bashed a two-run home run over the rightfield fence. It was not enough for the Blue Devils, however, as Campbell reliever Matt Buckley retired the side in the ninth to finish off a 4-2 victory for the Camels.
"They executed well, there's no doubt about it," Duke head coach Steve Traylor said. "They deserved to win the game."
Schoeneweis was credited for the loss, dropping his record to 1-1, despite a strong outing in which he struck out 10 batters in six innings without walking a batter. Schoeneweis kept Campbell hitters off-balance by mixing a hard-breaking curveball and slider in with his 85 to 90 mile per hour fastball.
"I thought in general, I pitched pretty well," Schoeneweis said. "I made a couple of mistakes in the fourth inning, and that was pretty much the difference."
Although he was disappointed with his team's first loss of the season, Traylor feels that the Blue Devils are playing solid baseball at this point in the year. He was especially pleased with Duke's defense and pitching over the weekend.
"We're just trying to get some consistency, and I think we have that," Traylor said. "We just came up short today."
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