No one would have been particularly surprised if the baseball team did not look its best coming off four road losses to one of the top teams in the country, Arizona State.
Instead, the Blue Devils (3-6) went out and annihilated the Georgetown Hoyas (0-4), winning two games by a combined 20 runs at historic Jack Coombs Stadium.
"I think that's the best weekend we've had since I've been here," said coach Bill Hillier. "We've got back to back double-digit wins; we hit it well, we played good defense and we pitched very well. I'm happy."
Both victories were the product of big innings and strong pitching.
In yesterday's blowout win, the Blue Devils struck early and often, having their big inning in the bottom of the first.
David Mason opened the inning with a single. J.D. Alleva walked, and then a Wes Goodner single knocked in Mason. Larry Broadway then drove in Alleva. A walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases and scored a run to make the score 3-0.
A sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 4-0, then a one-run single from Brian Patrick and a two-run double from David Mason put the Blue Devils ahead 7-0.
J.D. Alleva drove in the final run of the inning, and the Blue Devils led 8-0 after one.
That lead was maintained courtesy of Kevin Thompson's best performance of the season, not to mention four strong innings from the bullpen.
Thompson
"I hadn't pitched too well in my first two starts," he said. "But I new I could pitch well. [The key was] location. I kept the ball down. I didn't overthrow and I hit my spots."
Despite the strong work, it was not a very long outing for Thompson.
"The only reason we pulled him after five was because it was a 12-run game and it was cold," Hillier said. "He'd only thrown 56 pitches. 56 pitches in five innings, that's a pretty good pitch count. He threw very well."
Duke scored four more runs in the second inning to post the 12-0 lead that held up for the victory.
The blowout victory was not without its tense moments. With the score 11-0 in the second inning, David Mason stole second, then scored on a wild pitch.
The Georgetown bench began screaming at the Duke bench in response to the steal.
Hoyas' pitcher Kevin Field hit Wes Goodner-the next batter to come to the plate-in the middle of the back with a fastball. The umpire warned both Field and the Georgetown bench in response.
"I was upset," Hillier said. "It was definitely intentional. I thought [Field] should have been thrown out of the game. We were up 11 runs and we stole a base. They thought we were trying to run the score up. I told their coach, in the second inning, that's really early with aluminum bats."
In Saturday's opener, the Blue Devils road a nine-run third inning and a solid performance from the pitching staff to 14-6 victory.
Ryan Caradonna went five innings giving up four runs to earn the victory. The bullpen went the final four innings, giving up two runs and securing the win.
"Everybody threw well," Hillier said. "I told [assistant coach] Bill Jr. that last year we wouldn't have pulled Caradonna after five innings. We were young in the pen, and we didn't have a lot of confidence in our pen at this point last season. That's one of the reasons Ryan's ERA was up a little bit. We had to leave him in even when he didn't have his best stuff. That's going to help us out a bunch, being able to trust our pen instead of running the starters 115 pitches every time."
The two victories make a significant difference for Duke in the win-loss column, but perhaps their greatest value is in their ability to restore the team's confidence.
"It was huge," Hillier said. "I thought one of the things about last weekend is that our guys came back not feeling very good. It's kind of good when you get to the point that losing is hurting you a little bit. It means that you'll worked hard, so there is some pain there. I'm pleased with the way they responded."
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