The Duke baseball team continued to roll over the weekend, cruising to three wins at home over Youngstown State and one on the road over East Tennessee State.
The Blue Devils, now ranked No. 22 in the nation according to Baseball Weekly, upped their current winning streak to six games on the strength of their dominating pitching and solid offense.
Duke started off the weekend with an 8-2 victory over visiting Youngstown State. Senior Scott Schoeneweis earned his fifth win of the year by going all nine innings and striking out a career-high 13 Penguin batters, while walking only one.
"Scott got sharper as the game went on," head coach Steve Traylor said "His change-up was outstanding and his slider was good. He had great command of three pitches today, there's no doubt about it."
The Blue Devils fell behind 1-0 in the first inning but retaliated quickly, tying the score in the bottom of the second on an RBI double by freshman first baseman John Benik. Duke took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the third, and then poured it on in the fifth with five more, capped by freshman shortstop Jeremy Horowitz's run scoring single that plated two. The low point of the day came in the bottom of the third when senior centerfielder Mike King hyper-extended his knee sliding into home. He returned to the plate in the fifth inning but left the game for a pinch-runner after singling.
Saturday's action at Jack Coombs Field saw King return to the line-up, first as a designated-hitter and then back in centerfield in the second game. Apparently the effects of Friday's injury were minimal, as King blasted his fifth home run of the year to finish the scoring in Duke's 5-1 win over the Penguins in the bottom half of the their doubleheader. Once again the story for the Blue Devils was pitching as freshmen Stephen Cowie and Teddy Sullivan combined to allow only five hits over the seven inning game. Both pitchers are coming off of injuries and used this outing to firmly establish themselves as part of the rotation.
"Cowie really made progress today," Traylor said. " His first two times out he kind of looked like a guy coming off of rehab, but today he was much sharper. His breaking ball looked good; that was much closer to what kind of pitcher Stephen Cowie is going to be for us. Of course, the next time out he should be that much better."
The offensive leader of the second game was Horowitz, who finished 2-for-3 with RBI singles in the second and fourth innings.
The outcome of the first game of the doubleheader seemed to be sealed as Duke entered top of the seventh with a 6-0 lead and starter Richard Dishman still on the mound. Things quickly fell apart however as two Penguin hits and three Blue Devil errors led to four runs for Youngstown State. Senior reliever David Darwin entered the game with one out and proceeded to slam the door on the Penguin comeback by striking out the last two batters to earn his fifth save of the year.
"I really thought our time had come there," Traylor said. "You play this game long enough and something like that can happen for the good or the bad. It looked like this one was going to get away from us, but Darwin came in and preserved the win."
The heart of the Blue Devil batting order provided plenty of offensive punch in the 6-4 win as sophomore catcher Gregg Maluchnik, freshman third baseman Jeff Becker and sophomore leftfielder Michael Fletcher each provided two hits.
Sunday's action saw the Blue Devils travel to Kingsport, Tenn., where Duke downed East Tennessee State 6-0. Sophomore lefthander Clayton Connor (3-0) got the win in relief and combined with Darwin and starter sophomore Jim Wendling for the nine-hit shutout. The winning run was scored in the second inning when Benik grounded into a fielder's choice, bringing in Becker. Buccaneer starting pitcher Denny Maxwell fell to 4-2 on the year despite striking out ten Blue Devils over seven innings while surrendering only one earned run.
The win moved Duke to 24-3 on the year and dropped ETSU to 16-8. The next game for the Blue Devils is a Tuesday afternoon contest at home against Campbell.
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