After getting swept by North Carolina over the weekend, the baseball team knew it would not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Regionals, and realized it might need some divine intervention to earn an automatic bid by winning the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
Yesterday afternoon, the Blue Devils received some strangely encouraging omens that the Almighty might be on their side: Les Aiello pitched a scoreless inning and drove in a run.
Aiello's pitching and offensive production, along with a record-setting game from Jeff Becker, propelled Duke (33-14) to a 20-4 romp against the Greensboro Pride (27-13) at historic Jack Coombs Field.
"After the weekend, it's alright," coach Steve Traylor said. "A game like this is okay, get everybody in there, get Les in there. It has no bearing on what happens this weekend, but we can forget about that [UNC] series right now."
One thing all 20 or so fans attending the game will not soon forget was the two-way performance of Aiello. The Dallas, Tex. native came into the game in the top half of the eighth trying to protect a 14-4 lead. Despite giving up two singles, the journeyman lefthander kept the Pride from scoring and finished his day on the mound by striking out Greensboro's Brian Kreher. Aiello's inning was his first appearance of the season and only his fifth inning of work in his four years at Duke. The scoreless inning lowered Aiello's career ERA to 14.54-but Aiello was not done.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Blue Devils loaded the bases and Aiello stepped to the plate for his collegiate hitting debut. After working the count to 3-1, Aiello took the next pitch low and away for ball four, recording his first career RBI.
"Pitchers don't get a chance to get up too often, but Les looked like a hitter up there," Becker said. "He went up there with a lot of confidence. He looked good too, looked very good. I'm happy for him."
Becker himself did not look too shabby at the plate. In six trips to the plate, Becker ripped five singles, drove in five runs and put the exclamation point on his day with a three-run blast to left-center in the eighth inning.
"I don't know how long it has been since he hit one, maybe that will get him off the schnide a little bit and spark him for the rest of the year," Traylor said.
Only up 4-1 after three-and-a-half innings, the Blue Devils broke the game open with a seven-run fourth inning, capped by Michael Fletcher's two-run double and Ed Conrey's two-run homer.
During this final home game of the season, all three senior hurlers saw action on the mound. Clayton Connor started and went the first two innings. Jimmy Wendling followed Connor and picked up the win with three scoreless innings to improve his record to 4-1 on the season. Aiello then earned credit for a hold with his inning of work.
Notes: Becker's six hits tied the all-time Duke record for most hits in a game.... The last Blue Devil to record six hits in a game was Becker's teammate, Vaughn Schill, in a game last season against Appalachian State.... Duke's 23 hits tied a season high previously established in the second game of the season against Tennessee.... Ed Conrey's two RBIs bumped his team-high season total to 62, tying him with Florida State's Jeremy Salazar for the conference lead.
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