The baseball team put itself back on the winning track Wednesday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field by downing East Tennessee State 10-4. The win comes on the heels of a tough weekend series in which Duke dropped two of three to N.C. State and comes before the Blue Devils' weekend series against Florida State. The bats were potent, the pitching strong and the defense solid as Duke took full advantage of the opportunity to regroup and regain its winning form.
"We had to come out and win today's game because we want momentum heading into the Florida State series," junior second baseman Frankie Chiou said. "Plus, we stressed to everyone here that we can't overlook [East Tennessee State]. We had to take care of business here and then go to [Tallahassee]. I think that was the main priority."
"This was a good win for us to get under our belts," head coach Steve Traylor said. "It was important for us to get on a bus and travel 12 hours [Thursday] on a win, instead of a loss, and have a little momentum going into that first game against Florida State."
Duke got on the board first with a solo home run by senior centerfielder Mike King. The fourth inning blast to left was King's team-leading ninth homer of the year. The Blue Devils added two more in the fifth as Chiou singled in sophomore leftfielder Michael Fletcher and King brought in freshman first baseman John Benik with a sacrifice fly.
The Buccaneers fought back in the top of the sixth inning and drove Duke starting pitcher sophomore Richard Dishman (5-1) from the game. Third baseman A.J. Polichnowski, who finished 4-for-5 on the day, started the rally off with a double. After rightfielder Len Hart walked, designated hitter Brett Phelps came within inches of tying the score as he launched a shot over the leftfield fence that drifted just foul. After extensive objection by ETSU's third base coach, Phelps went back to the plate and scored them both with a two-run single.
With the game still in doubt at 3-2, Duke took over in the bottom of the sixth with three more runs. Benik got credit for the first RBI, as he was struck by the first pitch he saw from East Tennessee starter Todd Anderson (5-3), walking in a run with the bases loaded. Freshman rightfielder Jordan Litrownik followed with one of his three hits on the afternoon, a single, scoring freshman DH Marc Ludvigsen and Fletcher.
The Blue Devils added two more in both the seventh and eighth innings to push the lead to 10-2. Sophomore catcher Gregg Maluchnik collected a double in both innings, giving him three on the day.
"It looked like it was going to be a tight, 3-2 game," Traylor said, "and we were prepared for that. When we got those additional runs after that, that was just icing on the cake."
After a short stint by freshman middle-reliever Teddy Sullivan, senior closer David Darwin came in to pitch the last two innings. Despite being much more hitable than he has been in the past, Darwin escaped a tough bases-loaded jam in the ninth, having given up only two runs.
Duke continued its recent trend of dismantling non-conference foes, but did so in much more consistent fashion by evenly distributing its 14 hits throughout the game.
"We swung the bats well," Traylor said. "I thought we did some very good situation hitting, and we're continuing to play like we have all year. I think that's a very good sign for us."
"Non-conference games are always important for getting the bats going," Litrownik said. "The pitching might not be as strong, and it's a good time to get some hits and get the team's confidence back."
The win moved the Blue Devils to 32-9 on the year and dropped the Buccaneers to 23-20.
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