After a tough weekend in Tallahassee, the baseball team returned home to the friendly confines of Jack Coombs Field Tuesday to destroy the Crusaders of Belmont Abbey, 12-6.
Leading the offensive onslaught for the Blue Devils was junior shortstop Frankie Chiou, who finished 4-for-4 with three doubles, four runs scored, one RBI, a stolen base and a walk. Chiou, who normally plays second base, changed fielding positions due to the weekend injury of freshman Jeremy Horowitz. He is suffering from a bruised knee along with a staff infection. This caused Chiou to move up to the leadoff spot in the order, from his traditional two hole.
"It's really no change," Chiou said. "I have the same approach when I go up there, whether I am batting second or leadoff. Today, when I came out to the field I just wanted to concentrate on hitting the ball hard because I had a bad weekend. I wanted to get back on track, and the only way to do that is to hit line drives and not try and do too much."
The move resulted from head coach Steve Traylor's desire to move freshman third baseman Jeff Becker up in the order. In the wake of the decision, senior centerfielder Mike King moved from three to two, and freshman rightfielder Jordan Litrownik went from leadoff to sixth.
"I am really anxious to get Becker up a little bit higher in the order, get him some more at-bats and get him in a more productive spot," Traylor said. "To do that, somebody had to get bumped out of there. I want to make sure Mike King is up there, I want to keep [sophomore catcher] Gregg Maluchnik's bat in the four hole and Frankie is a legitimate leadoff hitter."
The injury to Horowitz prompted Traylor to insert freshman Tigger Marshall in at second base. Marshall responded by going 1-for-4 on the day with two RBIs.
"Fortunately we've got some depth," Traylor said. "Tigger Marshall is a guy who can sit all year and then go out there and be a very productive second baseman."
The new lineup proved to be highly effective for Duke as it tallied 13 hits on the day.
"I think we will probably stay with that lineup," Traylor said. "It gives us a little bit more punch at the top of the order for getting some more extra base hits, getting some more lefthanded guys in there."
King responded well to his new spot in the order, finishing 2-for-4 with a team high three RBIs and a wind-aided triple. Becker justified the initiative by going 3-for-4 with two RBIs, a double and a triple.
"The three hole was a different situation for me," Becker said. "Getting up in the first inning with Frankie usually on, I have a chance to get a couple more RBIs."
The biggest offensive inning came in the second when Duke batted around and put up six runs, making the score 7-0.
The Crusaders attempted a comeback in the top of the fourth as they posted three runs, highlighted by a two-run single off the bat of leftfielder Jeff Cox. The third inning also spelled the end of the line for senior pitcher Craig Starman, who was starting his first game in several weeks after an injury forced him from the rotation.
"His pitch count is about 50," Traylor said of Starman. "We just decided to start him, get him up to his pitch count and then just get him out of there. If we get the go-ahead on him for Saturday, we'll probably do the same thing again."
Starman was relieved by sophomore lefty Clayton Connor (4-1), who earned the win by going the final six and a third innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits, while striking out five.
"We knew we were going to be a little bit thin in our pitching today," Traylor said. "But fortunately Starman got a chance to at least go out and pitch again. Clayton got a chance to come in and pitch as well, and since he hasn't gotten much work lately we ended up extending him a little bit. Clayton did a good job. We are going to need him probably in a long relief role and perhaps a potential starting role."
Sophomore leftfielder Michael Fletcher scored on an RBI single by Marshall in the fourth inning, making the score 8-4. Duke added three more runs in the next inning as King drove in Chiou with a triple to right and Litrownik tripled as well, bringing in Becker.
The teams swapped runs in the eighth inning and the Crusaders finally managed to string some hits together against Connor as they scored two runs in the top of the ninth.
While Duke undoubtedly deserves credit for lighting it up with the bats, it could not help but benefit from the sloppy Crusader defensive effort that resulted in five errors, including three by rightfielder Chad Illing.
The strong wind to rightfield played havoc with both teams' outfielders throughout the game and kept towering shots to left by King and Maluchnik inside the park.
"They almost outhit us," Traylor said. "But they made some errors and that was probably the difference in the game."
The victory lifts the Blue Devils to 33-12 on the year while Belmont Abbey drops to 19-30.
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