The Blue Devils opened the 2001 season to mixed results.
Duke (1-2) split a pair of games against the Elon Phoenix (2-1) at historic Jack Coombs Stadium before losing at Elon yesterday.
But the three games are probably the last thing on anyone's mind.
In the third inning of yesterday's game in Burlington, sophomore pitcher Jeff Alleva was struck in the face by a line drive. Alleva had to be taken to the hospital.
"He should be all right," assistant coach Bill Hillier Jr. said. "He got hit in the eye with a line drive. All the tests came back pretty positive. He has seen the eye specialists, they think he will be all right."
Alleva spent the night in the hospital and will undergo further tests today.
Alleva's injury came with runners on first and second and the score tied at one. Elon leftfielder Jim Swenson hit the line drive that injured Alleva, and loaded the bases.
After a lengthy delay, play resumed with freshman Colin Begley pitching for the Blue Devils. Morgan Frazier hit a double off of Begley to score all three runners and put the Phoenix ahead 4-1.
In the fifth inning Duke and Elon each scored three runs to run the score to 7-3.
Continuing the slugfest, Duke
In the seventh inning David Mason stole home, and the Blue Devils went into the ninth down one run.
In the ninth inning J.D. Alleva drove in Mason to tie the game. Unfortunately for Duke, the pitching staff was not able to hold off Elon and force the game into extra innings. With two outs, Wes Smith singled into right field to drive in Chris Maggi and secure the Phoenix victory.
"It hurt," Hillier said. "We knew that we were playing a good team. Obviously we're going to be disappointed when we played that hard and lost the game. But the players realize that we're playing at a level where every team we play this year we're going to have a chance to win."
Such sentiment would not have been expected following the first loss of the three-game series.
On Friday, Duke opened its season with a 7-1 defeat during which the Blue Devils committed seven errors and got only four hits.
"On Friday I think our kids were extremely anxious," Hillier said. "Because they've worked so hard over the last nine months, they didn't let the game come to them. They tried to force things a bit. They expect to be so much better, and they tried to make everything happen all at once."
But the Blue Devils did not wilt following the loss.
On Saturday they produced an impressive come-from-behind win to beat the Phoenix 6-5.
Duke entered the seventh inning down 5-2. After an RBI double from Kevin Kelly, Doug Bechtold came to bat with runs on second and third and one out.
Bechtold ran the count to 3-2 before launching the first home run of his collegiate career an estimated 420 feet over the centerfield wall.
"I came up in that situation with men on second and third and I was just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere," Bechtold said. "When it got to two strikes I was just trying to put the ball in play. I got a fastball belt-high, middle-in, and I hit it hard enough. When I first hit it, I didn't think I hit it out... but it kept going."
Freshman pitcher Greg Burke held on to the one-run lead, and the Blue Devils came away with the victory.
With the win Saturday, and the hard-fought loss Sunday, the Blue Devils exited from the weekend pleased with their performance.
"There's a lot of positive things to come out of the last two days," Hillier said.
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