The final tuneup before ACC play begins this weekend wasn't scripted like this.
Taking advantage of Duke's sloppy fielding, botched baserunning and lack of offensive production, the Ball State Cardinals (4-4) broke open a scoreless game with five runs in the fifth inning and rolled to a 9-0 rout over the Blue Devils yesterday at historic Jack Coombs Field.
A year ago, the Blue Devils (10-9) headed into ACC play sporting a stellar 18-1 record and a top-20 national ranking. One year later, coach Steve Traylor hardly recognizes the team on the field.
"It was terrible," Traylor said. "Lack of effort, lack of concentration-just as poor an effort as we have had out here in years. I'm just not pleased with our effort, our focus, our execution. Effort and concentration is just very poor right now."
Ball State's first run of the game came home on a botched play in the infield. With runners on second and third and no outs in the fifth, Ball State's No. 9 hitter, Matt Deckman, rolled a grounder to third baseman Kevin Kelly. While Kelly fielded the ball cleanly and his throw home was in time to cut down the runner, catcher Ed Conrey dropped the throw and allowed the runner to slide in safely.
Two hitters later, Larry Bigbie drilled one over the right field fence to give the Cardinals a 5-0 lead and chase starter Tyler Lang.
"It's frustrating the way we've been coming out," Conrey said. "The morale's been a little low. We're not quite playing as a team yet, and we're just not getting it done in games.
"We're not hitting with runners in scoring position, we're not making good pitches when we need to. I feel, one through 20 or however many guys we have, we're just not getting it done as a team."
Making his first career start for Duke, Lang did as much as he could to keep the Blue Devils in the ballgame, holding the Cardinals scoreless with only three baserunners through four innings before the floodgates opened in the fifth.
"[Lang was] unbelievable," Conrey said. "He did a fantastic job. I can't say enough about the way he came out. You could tell he was a little nervous in the first couple of innings. But he settled into a groove and just had great stuff and made the pitches when he needed to."
After Lang exited the game, the Cardinals continued to pad their lead, adding three runs in the sixth on a textbook squeeze bunt and two RBI singles against reliever Brad Dupree.
Ball State's Jonathan Kessick led off the seventh inning by lofting a high fly ball into the right field corner that somehow fell in for a double. Two hitters later, Kessick scooted home with the Cardinal's final run on a grounder to third.
The Blue Devils managed only four hits against Ball State starter Chris Cabaj, who held Duke scoreless in eight innings while striking out six. It wasn't Cabaj's performance, however, that left a bad taste in Traylor's mouth after the game.
"We get picked off early in the game when we're not stealing a base," Traylor said. "It's a close game; we've struggled getting baserunners anyway. We get picked off on a line drive, we misplay balls hit into the outfield. We don't get to them. We misplay ground balls. They squeeze a run in, instead of trying to get an out out of it, we butcher it and don't even get an out out of it.
"Just total lack of concentration out there."
The Blue Devils chance for redemption comes this weekend as they open ACC play with a three-game series against Wake Forest. Chris Capuano gets the nod Friday, while ace Stephen Cowie takes the mound Saturday.
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