In a suspenseful game against East Carolina (24-8-1), the Duke baseball team (17-17) scored nine runs in the last three innings, but fell Wednesday to the 20th-ranked Pirates 12-10 at Harrington Field in Greenville.
"I think we definitely could have beaten them, so it's kind of disappointing," leftfielder Drew Jerdan said. "We made a bunch of small mistakes that ended up costing us the game."
Duke junior Larry Broadway got things started for the Blue Devils in the first inning as he homered off right-hander Scott Greene to give Duke a 1-0 lead.
The homer was Broadway's sixth on the season.
Brian Patrick was on the mound for the Blue Devils as ECU took the lead in the second inning. The Pirates capitalized on two crucial errors made in that inning. Pirate shortstop Luke Cherry reached base on a fielding error. Then, he and catcher Clayton McCullough
In the bottom of the sixth, ECU took off with its lead as it sent 11 batters to the plate in that inning alone. In the seventh, the Pirates took advantage of yet another error when they scored seven runs off six hits and Cherry hit a bases-loaded triple.
ECU first baseman Darryl Lawhorn led the offensive attack for the Pirates, going 4-for-6 at the plate with two doubles and scoring three runs.
Leftfielder Ben Sanderson also contributed to the offense with a 3-for-6 performance for ECU.
The Blue Devils made a strong rally in the last innings, however, when they scored four runs in the eighth inning and three in the ninth to narrow the lead to 12-10.
Duke freshman Tim Layden hit a three-run homer in the ninth with two outs left, but catcher Blake Walker grounded out, and freshman Aaron Kempster struck out to end the game not to mention the hopes of an upset.
Patrick took the loss for the Blue Devils, dropping his record to 2-2. Freshman Drew Jerdan garnered three hits in the Blue Devil comeback and Kempster went 2-for-5. Layden and Broadway's only hits were their home runs, as both hitters were 1-for-4 on the night.
Catcher Troy Caradonna, center-fielder Doug Bechtold and second baseman Bryan Smith were all held to one-hit nights as well.
'The best thing that came out of it is that we know now that we can beat a team that is ranked in the top 25 in the country, and if we hadn't have made those errors, we would have beaten them,' Jerdan said. 'So even though we lost, we can take something good out of it.'
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