The baseball team toppled Davidson in all aspects of the game en route to a 12-2 win Wednesday. The team had six players with multiple hits, and shut the Wildcats out for seven full innings in its final game before it meets the No. 1 team in the country, the Clemson Tigers.
"Our biggest problem of the year is that we've hit well at times, we've pitched well at times, we've played great defense at times," coach Bill Hillier said. "We just have a problem bringing it together on a consistent basis. Tonight, I just told them down the line, OGood job pitcher, good job hitter, good job defensive player.'"
The Blue Devils jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, scoring a run in the first inning. After senior Kevin Kelly reached base on a fielding error, he scored on a double to right field by Drew Jerdan.
The lethargic game was blown open in the third inning, when the Blue Devils erupted for five runs to take a 6-0 lead.
Doug Bechtold led off the inning with a double. Brian Patrick then bunted to put Bechtold at third before Kelly hit a stand-up triple to drive in the first run of the inning.
Following a Larry Broadway walk, Jerdan continued to frustrate Davidson pitcher Erskine Wells by hitting a triple. Bringing home Broadway and Kelly, Jerdan pushed the lead to 3-0. Zach Schreiber brought home Jerdan with an RBI single, elevating the lead to 4-0.
Layden hit an RBI single up the middle and Troy Caradonna added a run-scoring ground-rule double to conclude the prosperous inning.
Hillier praised his team's brilliant inning.
"If Troy hadn't had a ground-rule double, we would have had three triples," Hillier said. "Three triples in one inning? That doesn't happen very often. We just had good at bats."
A 6-0 deficit is not too much to overcome in most games, but the ferocity of Duke freshman Tim Layden's pitching made it nearly impossible.
Layden pitched four innings, giving up just two hits and zero runs.
"You always expect a shutout," Layden said. "My fastball was working, which was key."
Layden also was relaxed by the great run support his offense gave.
"It was nice to go out there with a big lead," he said. "It was just a well played game on our part."
Hillier had nothing but praise for his young star.
'As a freshman, one of the things you worry about from a coaching standpoint is how consistent they'll be,' Hillier said. 'You don't expect them to have their A game every day, but [Layden's] been able to go out the last three or four times and have pretty good command.'
Layden's replacements did not lower the quality of pitching, as Ryan Sember and Schreiber brought the shutout into the eighth inning before Kevin Perry gave up two runs.
'I'm upset we gave up two runs in the eighth,' Hillier said. 'I wanted the shutout, because your whole pitching staff feels good about it. Shutouts are tough to come by in college baseball.'
Paul DeMarco finished the game off strong for the Blue Devils, giving up no runs in his 1 1/3 innings pitched. DeMarco's performance bodes well for Duke, given the difficulty the righthander has had in coming back from a shoulder injury earlier in the season.
Duke had a repeat of the third inning in the seventh, when the lead was pushed to 12-0. Bryan Smith led off the inning with a double to right field. Caradonna, Blake Walker and Bechtold hit back-to-back-to-back triples and Patrick and Broadway drew walks en route to the five runs scored in the inning.
Caradonna led Duke's offensive numbers with three hits, including a double, and had two RBI and one run scored. Jerdan was 2-of-3 with a double, a triple, two walks, a run and a game-high four RBI.
This weekend, Duke is set to take on its ACC rival and the top-ranked team in the nation, Clemson.
'If we play like we played today, we're going to be in the ballgame,' Hillier said.
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