There is something naturally appealing about rainy Sunday afternoons.
That is, unless your team is rained out coming off one of its best performances of the young season.
"[We were] a little bit disappointed," freshman Drew Jerdan said. "I think we could have won today and helped our record. Everyone wanted to play."
But while mother nature deprived the Blue Devils (4-8) of the opportunity to pull out a 2-1 series victory at historic Jack Coombs Stadium yesterday, overall, it was a very good weekend for the team.
On Friday afternoon, only seven games after an injury that initially appeared career-threatening, Jeff Alleva returned to the Blue Devil lineup, pitching three scoreless innings.
"It's great to see Jeff Alleva back," coach Bill Hillier said. "I'm not sure anybody else in the country comes back from the type of injury he had as quick as he did."
Unfortunately for Duke, Alleva's return was not enough to secure the victory.
The Bearcats (6-2) drew first blood in the game, scoring two runs in the top of the seventh inning. Duke loaded the bases in the bottom half of the inning, but did not score.
Duke scored its first run in the fourth on a solo home run from Jerdan, the first of his career. The Blue Devils added a second run on a solo homer from first baseman Larry Broadway in the sixth, reducing their deficit to 4-2. Duke loaded the bases in the ninth with no outs, but a double play and a Broadway strikeout ended the game.
"That's a tough game to lose," Hillier said. "I'm proud of the way our guys hung in there and fought back. We put ourselves in great position to win, and that's what I want from our guys."
Saturday was a different story.
The Blue Devils played superbly, beating the Bearcats 4-1 to even the series at a game apiece.
"We all knew that we could beat that team," Jerdan said. "We were focused on coming back Saturday and getting the win."
Duke jumped on the scoreboard first, and never gave Cincinnati a chance.
With two down in the bottom of the fifth, following a J.D. Alleva double, Wes Goodner singled to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead.
The lead was extended to 3-0 with a run-scoring balk in the sixth and an RBI double from Larry Broadway in the seventh.
While the offense did its job, the story Saturday was the masterful pitching performance of sophomore righthander Kevin Thompson.
Thompson hurled eight shutout innings, allowing only three hits while striking out eight.
"[His performance] was huge for us," Jerdan said. "We've been struggling to score runs, so when a pitcher doesn't give up any, it helps a lot."
The lone Cincinnati run of the afternoon came on a ninth-inning home run from Ryan Minges. That cut the score to 4-1, but that was the closest the Bearcats came to victory. Jerdan, complementing his performance at the plate with effective pitching, finished off the inning to give Duke the victory.
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