The baseball team opened its home season Monday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field and rode a strong pitching performance from freshman Brent Reid to a 3-2 win over visiting East Carolina.
The Blue Devils (5-0) came into the game sporting the luster of a national ranking (No. 23 by Collegiate Baseball and No. 20 by Baseball America), but almost fell victim to the Pirates (0-1) and their own sloppy play.
"It was a close game because we didn't play well," Duke coach Steve Traylor said. "It had the feel of a game we might not win because I feel like we blew so many opportunities. We didn't execute; we didn't get our bunts down; we didn't hit with people in scoring position; we made some baserunning mistakes; we made some blunders defensively.
"Fortunately, we got great pitching all day long and we hung in there and won a game on a day when we just didn't play well against a quality team."
Reid (2-0) set the table for the Blue Devils' win by going seven strong innings to start the game, surrendering just one run on four hits.
"He took us even deeper into the game than we expected," Traylor said. "He gave us seven innings, but his pitch count was only 90, so we stayed with him. He was very much in command and he's very composed. He throws strikes-he's going to be an awfully good pitcher for us."
Senior Clayton Connor relieved Reid in the eighth and gave up one run, shrinking the Duke lead to 3-2. Sophomore Vaughn Schill came in to close the game in the ninth inning and struck out the first two ECU batters before forcing a third Pirate to pop out to shallow left field.
"It's nice to have an arm like Vaughn Schill's to bring in and close the game" Traylor said. "We told him this was a prototypical closing situation with a one-run lead and we had a chance to go to him."
The save was the first of the season for Schill-who doubles as Duke's shortstop-after picking up five saves and four wins in 1997 as a freshman.
At the plate, the Blue Devils scored all their runs thanks to senior catcher Gregg Maluchnik. The Raleigh native opened up the scoring in the first inning when he belted a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall for a two-out, two-run homer. The blast was Maluchnik's fourth of the year.
After an ECU run in the top of the third narrowed the lead to 2-1, Maluchnik struck again, driving in junior Jordan Litrownik, who was on second following a double, with a double of his own.
The win was Duke's first as a ranked team since early in the 1996 season. This year, the national ranking came quickly because the Blue Devils managed early wins over perennial national powers Ohio State, Tennessee and Notre Dame.
"I certainly expected that we would be ranked with the quality of the opponents that we've played," Traylor said. "I felt like we would certainly be in the top 25 and maybe even in the top 20.... With coaches, we always talk about how [the ranking] doesn't mean anything, but it does give you some visibility-when people open the paper out in Wyoming, now we're in there."
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