The baseball team came back to defeat Yale, 11-9, Thursday afternoon at Jack Coombs field.
Offense was the key for the Blue Devils, as they were misfiring in all other aspects of the game.
"That was definitely the worst game we've played this year, except for our offense," head coach Steve Traylor said. "We didn't pitch well, that was the worst defense we've played in all 25 games, we made a couple of base running mistakes... so to win having played the way we did makes this a huge win for us."
Duke (20-3) rallied from deficits of 1-0, 6-1 and 9-8 to defeat the 5-6 Bulldogs. The final comeback was keyed by freshman Marc Ludvigsen who entered the game in the bottom of the eighth as a pinch hitter. He led the inning off with a 400-foot-plus home run to left-centerfield to knot the score at nine.
"I'm coming off of a hamstring injury, so I'm limited to that kind of situation," Ludvigsen said. "I was ready to come in at a crucial time."
Horowitz followed with a walk and was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by freshman rightfielder Jordan Litrownik. Junior second baseman Frankie Chiou brought Horowitz home by tripling down the leftfield line giving Duke the lead. Senior centerfielder Mike King then singled in Chiou, giving the Blue Devils an insurance run.
Duke got in a hole early, as starting pitcher Craig Starman fell victim to an uncanny number of bloop singles in the second inning. That coupled with two errors by freshman shortstop Jeremy Horowitz led to five Yale runs. Starman remained in the game until the seventh inning, having surrendered nine runs-six of which were earned-on nine hits. Sophomore righthander Jim Wendling pitched to three batters in the seventh before Traylor brought in ace reliever, senior David Darwin. Darwin pitched the last two and a third innings and picked up his fourth win of the season while striking out four Yale batters.
"David Darwin is now entrenched as our stopper," Traylor said. "Our only concern is wanting to put him in too early. Today he really had some of his best stuff of the year."
Yale opened the scoring in the top of the first when rightfielder Dan Thompson hit a two-out solo home run. Duke retaliated in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by freshman first baseman Jeff Becker, scoring King. After the barrage of singles in the second inning built Yale's lead to 6-1, the Blue Devils posted four runs in the bottom of the third inning-highlighted by Becker's two-run single.
The Bulldogs added a run in the top of the fourth when leadoff man Tommy Kidwell scored from second on a wild pitch, pushing the lead to 7-5. The Blue Devils responded with a two-RBI double by Becker in the fifth and an RBI single by Litrownik in the sixth, giving Duke its first lead of the game, 8-7. Yale reclaimed the lead with two runs in the top of the seventh on an RBI single by Thompson and an RBI double by designated hitter Keith Caggiano.
Duke continues its non-conference schedule at home this weekend with one game Friday and a doubleheader Saturday against Youngstown State. Sunday the team travels to East Tennessee State.
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