While the majority of the student body sat in front of their televisions anxiously awaiting the start of the second half of the ACC title game, Duke pitcher Stephen Cowie was on the verge of making some history of his own.
Cowie pitched six perfect innings to open up Duke's (10-8) 3-2 win yesterday against Elon (5-11-1) at historic Jack Coombs Field. Coach Steve Traylor said that Cowie's performance was exactly what the Blue Devils needed after an 8-3 loss at Elon on Saturday.
"Yesterday we gave up 16 hits, we really needed Stephen to come out and shut them down," he said. "He gave us just what we needed, a chance to win."
Cowie dominated the Fighting Christians through the first six innings. In addition to allowing no hits or walks, he struck out eight batters, with five coming in the first three innings.
Duke took an early lead in the game when Ryan Caradonna's second-inning single drove in Kevin Kelly and John Benik.
With Duke ahead, the focus shifted to Cowie's bid for perfection.
Elon outfielder Jason Tuttle ended the suspense in the seventh, with a base hit up the middle to lead off the inning. Cowie responded by striking out two of the next three hitters and getting a pop out to end the inning.
In the Duke half of the seventh, Ed Conrey scored the Blue Devils' final run in rather unusual fashion. Conrey hit a fly ball over the leftfielder's head. The ball bounced and rolled to the base of the fence. The Elon outfielder initially signaled to the umpire that the ball was stuck, but he continued to try to pry the ball free.
The umpire never ruled the play dead, and Conrey kept running. He was credited with an inside-the-park home run and Duke took a 3-0 lead.
Elon had two hits in the eighth, but scored no runs. Entering the ninth inning the score remained 3-0. Traylor decided to give Cowie the chance for the complete game. Cowie had a rocky start to the inning, allowing Tuttle his second hit, and then giving up an RBI single.
He allowed one more run before closing out the game. Cowie finished the afternoon with 15 strike outs and seven hits allowed.
Despite his somewhat rocky performance in the ninth inning, Traylor said he made the right decision in letting Cowie finish the game.
"He's the best we have, and I wanted to give him the chance to win the game," he said. "He was dominating them as far as I was concerned, but we had Teddy Sullivan ready and we would have brought him in if Stephen gave them another runner. We still thought Cowie had good stuff."
With the win Duke moved to 2-1 on the weekend, having beaten North Carolina A&T 9-6 on Friday, but losing to Elon Saturday.
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