Michael Fletcher's hot bat heated up a chilly afternoon at historic Jack Coombs Field, and the baseball team took care of business with a 16-4 win against a listless North Carolina A&T team yesterday to remain undefeated with a record of 10-0.
Fletcher, a senior, drove in a team-high six runs on a pair of three-run home runs.
Senior Jordan Litrownik and junior Jeff Becker also homered for the 18th-ranked Blue Devils, who probably wished that they could find room in the schedule for another game with the unranked Aggies (3-5).
"That was the first time we've really exploded on a team since the [season-opening] Florida trip," Fletcher said. "Especially last weekend against Georgetown, we just pittled around until the seventh or eighth inning. It was nice to get up five runs early."
Litrownik started the fire by lining the first pitch of the game inside the left-field foul pole for his first homer of the year.
Two pitches later, Becker made it 2-0 with a blast to straightaway left.
Aggies' pitcher Sharee Hopper walked the next two batters, and Fletcher drove a curve ball over the 40-foot wall in center field for the first of his two homers and a 5-0 lead. Things were never close after that.
"Litrownik really set the table for us with his homer," Fletcher said. "Teams like this, obviously we should beat them, but it's not like they're completely overmatched."
The Aggies certainly looked overmatched on Wednesday, surrendering 16 hits and 10 walks. They fell to 1-27 all-time against the Blue Devils.
A new 12-run mercy rule,which was introduced this year by the NCAA, could have stopped the bleeding after seven innings, but the two teams had agreed before the game to ignore the rule.
"I'll never agree to a 12-run rule," Duke coach Steve Traylor said. "We have too many pitchers, and I want them all to pitch. I need to get them as much work as possible."
Freshman Patrick Hannaway held the Aggies to three runs in six innings of work to improve his record to 2-0.
Sophomore Chris Capuano and freshman Ryan Caradonna combined to shut out the Aggies over the last three innings, striking out six in the process.
Sophomore shortstop Vaughn Schill shook off an early-season slump, going 3-for-5 with a single, a double and a triple. He also scored a game-high four runs.
"I think we have so many good hitters on this team that it's only a matter of time before we all start hitting together," Litrownik said.
The Blue Devils played a game of musical chairs over the last three innings, shifting four players to foreign positions. Senior catcher Gregg Maluchnik tried his hand both in center field and at third base while Schill moved to the outfield for the first time.
"We're into versatility on this team right now," Traylor said. "We don't have a lot of depth, and we need to be able to move people around."
With so many players out of position, Duke seemed to be having a good laugh at the Aggies' expense, but Traylor was not joking.
"We're not messing around when we do that," he said. "With Adam Geis injured we only have three outfielders, so we've been trying to get David Mason some work out there. And Becker at short is our normal alignment when Schill pitches."
Still, in a game that was never close, not every move was a crucial experiment.
"I don't know about Schill in center field," Litrownik said with a laugh. "We're going to have to work on that one."
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