Baseball suffers rough start to conference play

The baseball team might want to end March like a lion, because it entered its first week of ACC play like a lamb to the slaughter.

The Blue Devils fell to 13-13 after two losses at Wake Forest and three defeats at the hands of Virginia to open their ACC schedule. The week's only bright spot was three blowout wins against overmatched Coppin State.

Coach Steve Traylor said prior to departing for Wake Forest that the key to beating the Demon Deacons was managing to score runs against a starting pitching staff that Traylor described as possibly the best in the nation.

The Wake staff did little to dispel that notion. In the first game, Mike MacDougal, a major league prospect and first team All-ACC pitcher, threw the first no-hitter in 60 years for the Demon Deacons. MacDougal struck out five, allowing only two Blue Devils to reach base.

Chris Capuano pitched a strong game, allowing only one earned run on 10 hits over 7 2/3 innings, but Wake Forest scored four unearned runs to win 5-0.

In game two John Hendricks, another first team All-ACC pitcher, shut Duke out for eight innings as the Demon Deacons hammered the Blue Devils 15-6. Stephen Cowie took the loss, surrendering 11 runs on 12 hits in 3 2/3 innings.

The results were not any better in this past weekend's series against UVa in Charlottesville. The Blue Devils dropped Friday's game 15-5 and Saturday's 15-3. In both contests eight of the nine UVa batters had base hits. Sunday's game was canceled due to rain and will not be made up.

The bright spot of the week for Duke was a three-game series against Coppin State at historic Jack Coombs Field. The highlight was a five-inning no-hitter pitched by Ryan Caradonna, Chris Capuano and Teddy Sullivan in the second game Wednesday. Caradonna worked the first three innings, while Capuano and Sullivan went an inning each. The game was called after five under the mercy rule with Duke ahead 11-0.