It was another up and down weekend for the baseball team, as the Blue Devils wedged their second ACC victory between their worst loss of the season and a nail-biting defeat.
The Blue Devils (21-22, 2-11 in the ACC) lost 18-1 Friday in the first game of the weekend series at Clemson (23-17, 5-6) but rebounded to take Saturday's game 5-3, before losing the final game, 7-5, yesterday.
The Blue Devils' victory Saturday was the product of both brilliant pitching by starter Stephen Cowie and clutch hitting late in the game.
Cowie (7-6) pitched nine innings, allowing only three earned runs while raising his ACC-leading strikeout total to 92 with a 13-strikeout performance. Cowie's work, though, was not enough to finish the Tigers in nine innings.
The score was tied 3-3 at the end of nine, with Duke's three runs having come in the first inning on an RBI single from Kevin Kelley and a two-run double from Ryan Caradonna.
Clemson reliever Matt Additon had held the Blue Devils hitless for six and one third innings to end the ninth, but the Blue Devils made short work of him in the 10th.
Vaughn Schill and Scott Grossi opened up the inning with back to back singles. Clemson brought in Chris Hecke to pitch, but Ed Conrey hit a double on Hecke's first pitch to drive in the go-ahead run. Duke added an insurance run when John Benik singled in Grossi to put the Blue Devils ahead 5-3. Teddy Sullivan then shut down the Tigers in the 10th to collect his sixth save of the season.
The victory followed the 18-1 disaster on Friday. Duke was not in contention in that contest after a second-inning seven-run explosion by the Tigers.
Brad Dupree fell to 4-5 after allowing seven earned runs in two innings. But the removal of Dupree did little to silence the Clemson bats. The Tigers scored three runs in the third, four in the fourth and two in the sixth to take an 18-1 lead and knock reliever Steve Schroeder out of the game.
While Duke's pitching fared poorly, the defense and batting did little to help the Blue Devils' chances of success. Duke managed only two hits, a double by Schill and a single from Caradonna. Additionally, the Blue Devils committed five errors that resulted in four unearned runs.
The loss yesterday was much closer. Duke led 4-2 after six-and-a-half innings before dropping the game 7-5. Duke starter Chris Capuano pitched a strong five innings, allowing only two runs on four hits. But the bullpen was unable to get the job done.
The Blue Devils fell behind 5-4 in the bottom half of the seven when Tyler Lang gave up three earned runs. Duke scored a run in the eighth to tie the game at five, but the Tigers scored a pair of runs off Sullivan, also in the eighth inning, to take the 7-5 victory.
The Blue Devils return to action on Tuesday when they take on UNC-Greensboro at 3 p.m. at historic Jack Coombs Field. Duke resumes ACC play Friday with a three-game series at UNC.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.