At the end of the second inning the majority of fans at yesterday's Duke-Elon game were discussing the application of the 10-run mercy rule in college baseball.
And after a weekend of bad news, a 12-6 win over Elon (0-1) at historic Jack Coombs Field was just what the Blue Devils (2-3) needed.
Duke began the game on a terror. Vaughn Schill hit a triple to right center that missed clearing the wall by no more than four feet. Scott Grossi then drove in Schill with a double to right center, Ed Conrey knocked in Grossi with a single up the middle and outfielder David Mason rounded out the scoring for the inning with a one-hop single to the left fielder that brought home Wes Goodner.
The rout was on as Ryan Caradonna blasted a solo home run and Goodner had a two-run single in the second to build Duke's lead to 6-0.
This early success came against Chris Hughes, Elon's best pitcher last season. His talent, particularly his control, may have provided Duke with an advantage.
"He is their best pitcher by far so we came in looking for strikes," coach Steve Traylor said. "That early aggressiveness was especially important after Saturday's game where we weren't aggressive at all."
As Duke piled up the early runs, Elon struggled to reach base. Brent Reid did not allow a hit in the first two innings. All told, he worked 3.2 innings, allowing two runs on a fourth inning home run by Elon catcher Scott Clark.
For both Reid and the coaching staff the primary concern was not his ERA, but rather how his arm felt in a game situation. Reid has a build-up of scar tissue in his right bicep. The tissue is impinging on either tendons or nerve endings, and the result is a slight loss in velocity.
This problem was in no way apparent in Reid's performance. He had extremely good command of his pitches, and other than the home run gave up very little to batters. He was also able to throw 70 pitches, thus fulfilling the coach's pregame hopes.
Despite Reid's success, Traylor said that he must wait to here from the doctor before a determination can be made about Reid's future.
"Reid has had this problem since his senior year of high school, and this is the first time it has been properly diagnosed," he said. "Surgery will fix the problem, but you don't know how someone is going to respond. If they say he can have surgery and be back in a month [for the start of ACC competition], that is definitely the way to go."
Clark's home run seemed to cool off the Blue Devils, and Elon actually closed to within three runs after the top off the sixth inning. But the bottom half of the inning eliminated any doubt as to the game's outcome.
Elon removed starter Chris Hughes due to pitch count and replaced him with reliever Tim Schilling. The move proved to be a disaster.
Duke began the inning successfully, as Caradonna and Darden opened the action with back-to-back singles. Schill then brought in Caradonna with a double down the left field line. Darden scored on a passed ball. Following a Grossi walk, Becker hit an RBI single. Conrey then walked, and another run came home on a passed ball. Goodner drove in the final two runs of the inning on a single into center field.
The sixth inning finally ended, and Elon managed to tack on three runs in the top of the eighth on a fielders choice and a two-run single.
With the score 12-6, the game was called after the top of the eighth due to darkness.
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