Things went so well at historic Jack Coombs Field this weekend that Alpha Tau Omega banged out a decent version of "Take me out to the ballgame" during Sunday's seventh-inning stretch.
The Blue Devils (4-6) hammered the Temple Owls (0-5) in all three games to earn their first series sweep of the season.
The three wins left coach Bill Hillier pleased.
"Whenever you sweep somebody, that's huge," he said. "It was a good weekend for us, because we finally started hitting the ball, and we pitched very well."
While the weekend ended up a complete success, it opened with a rocky start.
In game one of Saturday's doubleheader, Temple drew first blood when it scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the first inning.
But the Owls would not lead long. Scott Grossi led off the bottom half of the inning with a single and a stolen base, and J.D. Alleva knocked him in with a single.
The Blue Devils added two more singles to load the bases, before a David Mason single knocked in a pair of runs to put Duke ahead 3-2.
Kevin Kelly then singled to drive in a run. A groundout and a fielder's choice put the Blue Devils ahead 6-2 at the end of one.
A two-run double from Jeff Becker helped Duke score four runs in the third to take a 10-2 lead.
On the other side of the ball, Steve Schroeder went six innings without allowing an earned run. Brad Dupree finished off the day, as the Blue Devils won 11-2.
Game two began with Duke again falling behind early. Brent Reid gave up two first-inning runs before the Blue Devils evened the score at 2-2 with a Becker RBI triple and a sacrifice fly from Troy Caradonna in the bottom half of the inning.
Duke went up 3-2, before again falling behind 4-3 in the third.
The Blue Devils rallied back with a run in the bottom of the third and a pair of two-run innings in the fifth and sixth to secure an 8-4 victory in the seven-inning contest.
But Hillier did not think the performance was flawless.
"I wasn't pleased with our defense," the coach said. "We've been fielding unbelievably well, but we made some errors on plays we wouldn't normally make them."
Sunday's game lacked the dramatics of the previous two contests.
Duke led from the outset, as it opened the game with a pair of runs in the first on a two-run double from Gideon Thompson.
Becker drove in a run in the third to put the Blue Devils ahead 3-0. Temple scored in the fifth, and the game remained in contention until the seventh.
In the bottom half of the inning, Duke scored four runs to put the game out of reach on the strength of a two-run single from Becker.
The win left Hillier looking at his team in a new light.
"You find out what your team is made of after you lose," he said. "We found out with three big wins here."
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