The 11 p.m. edition of Sportscenter Saturday night opened with Stuart Scott blurting, "Duke shuts out Maryland... in baseball!"
Thus the Duke baseball team made its first appearance on ESPN in recent memory.
While the events in Minneapolis set up Scott's opening, it was Kevin Thompson's brilliant pitching performance that made the line possible.
Thompson tossed the first complete game shutout of his career on Saturday at historic Jack Coombs Field, as the Blue Devils (15-18, 4-4 in the ACC) knocked off the Terrapins (6-10, 0-8), by a score of 9-0.
Thompson struck out seven batters and allowed only five hits as he improved his record to 6-2 on the season. Thompson is currently tied for the ACC lead in victories with Rhett Parrott of Georgia Tech.
"He was awesome," coach Bill Hillier said. "Whenever you throw a complete game in the conference you've pitched well. A complete game shutout doesn't happen very often in this conference. A five-hit complete game shutout, that's some pretty good pitching."
With the victory, Duke took a 2-0 lead over Maryland in the series. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they were denied the chance to pick up the three-game sweep due to inclement weather on Sunday.
"It was unfortunate that we didn't get the benefit of playing [yesterday]," Hillier said. "We would have liked to get the three-game [sweep]."
In the first victory of the series on Friday, Duke appeared headed for defeat before pulling a fourth inning comeback on the way to a 11-7 victory.
The Blue Devils came into the bottom half of the fourth down 5-0, but a bases-loaded error by Maryland starter Jared Stuart scored a run, and brought J.D. Alleva to the plate with the sacks full. Alleva hit a 3-run double to pull Duke within a run.
"That double was huge," Hillier said. "J.D. just seems to raise the quality of his play in the conference. He gets up for the big games."
The Blue Devils added five more runs in the inning and took a 9-5 lead.
Duke's final two runs came on a Larry Broadway single in the sixth and Alleva's third homer of the year in the seventh.
"We played as well [Friday] as we've played since the Wake Forest series," Hillier said.
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