Baseball takes series against Princeton, Brown 2-1 each

Like a fifth-grade bully, the Duke baseball team spent the weekend beating up the smart kids.

After a disappointing loss Thursday night to Princeton (4-10), Duke (13-17, 2-4 in the ACC) rallied Friday and Saturday to take two games from the Tigers, 12-7 and 8-7, respectively.

The Blue Devils then lost to Brown 5-1 Saturday afternoon, but bounced back to take both games of a doubleheader yesterday.

"We took both series and that's huge," coach Bill Hillier said. "Coming in to two series over four days, I knew it would put stress on our pitching staff. Our pitching staff did an excellent job... taking four games out of six, that's huge. I feel pretty good."

With the pitching staff over-extended after playing four games in the previous three days, Hillier elected to start Ryan Caradonna in the first game of the doubleheader yesterday morning, even though that meant he was pitching on only two days' rest

"We watched his pitch count on Thursday night," Hillier said. "We knew going into Thursday that if his pitching count was right we could go with him on Sunday. That was huge for us. We needed him to do that in order to take the series."

Caradonna's performance left little doubt that starting him on short rest was the correct decision. The senior went 6.1 innings, allowing only one run.

"He was awesome," catcher Troy Caradonna said. "It took a lot of guts, he was pitching on only two days rest, and I think he threw 85 pitches on Thursday. He came out and he battled. It was one of his best outings of the season by far."

The strategy proved futile as second baseman Scott Grossi drew a bases-loaded walk and shortstop Kevin Kelly hit a three-run double to put the Blue Devils ahead 8-3.

"I understand what he was doing," Hillier said. "I think he did a pretty good job. He made some moves and we countered. I don't think of it like the seventh game of the World Series..., but he's thinking that if he takes that game, then he could say he took a series from Duke. That's huge especially in the recruiting process, where we go head-to-head with them."

Alleva drove in two runs in the top of the ninth to close out the 8-5 victory.

The nightcap also went down to the wire. Both staffs pitched well, and the Blue Devils entered the bottom of the ninth with the score tied 2-2.

With one out, third baseman J.D. Alleva and DH Brian Patrick drew back to back walks, bring Troy Caradonna to the plate.

Caradonna took a ball and two strikes before banging the game-winning single down the line inside the Brown first baseman.

"The guy got me one and two and hung a curve ball," Caradonna said. "It was basically the only hard-hit ball I had all weekend, but it came at the right time."

All in all, the weekend series left the Blue Devils optimistic.

"It should give us some momentum," Hillier said. "We've been hitting the ball pretty well, and we've been able to win some pretty good games. The guys are feeling good about themselves right now."