The opening weeks of the baseball season bring many things to mind, like peanuts, the smell of freshly cut grass and the onset of spring. Ice storms, however, are not included.
In conditions more reminiscent of December football than springtime baseball, Duke split a pair of games against Pittsburgh (1-1) Friday and Saturday at Jack Coombs Field, before freezing rain forced the cancellation of Sunday's rubber match.
Though the Blue Devils (3-3) missed an excellent opportunity to come away with two wins, and were unable to push their record above .500. Head coach Bill Hillier was pleased with his team's play in the wake of a 14-2 drubbing at UNC-Wilmington.
"That's the great thing about baseball - you always have a chance to redeem yourself," Hillier said. "Every day is a new day."
The Blue Devils lost a 2-1 pitcher's duel Saturday. In the best outing to date by a starting pitcher in Duke's young season, junior Justin Dilucchio (0-1) allowed only one unearned run and two hits in five innings, retiring 15 of 19 batters faced, but came away the hard-luck loser after Duke's offense provided him with paltry run support.
"It's frustrating," Dilucchio said. "You can't be happy with your performance if the team doesn't win. The offense has been great for us all season, but we just didn't come through in the right spots [Saturday]."
Dilucchio and Pittsburgh starter Nick Evangelista (1-0) kept the teams scoreless for the first four innings before the Panthers got on the scoreboard with an unearned run in the top of the fifth. Mike Scanzano reached on an error by third baseman Adam Loftin, and scored on a single by Scott Folmar.
Pittsburgh tacked on what proved to be the deciding run an inning later, after Dilucchio was removed in favor of junior Kevin Thompson, the starter in last Wednesday's debacle against Wilmington. Pittsburgh shortstop Bryan Spamer greeted Thompson with a leadoff double, and proceeded to score on a sacrifice fly by Tom Cashman.
Duke cut into the lead with a run in the seventh, when Loftin atoned for his earlier miscue with a leadoff double down the right field line, his third two-bagger of the season and Duke's only extra-base hit in the game. After Loftin advanced to third, catcher Brian Hernandez plated him with an RBI groundout.
That would close the scoring for the afternoon, as right-hander Don Rhoten retired Duke in order in the eighth and ninth innings in tossing three perfect frames to seal the Pittsburgh win.
The Blue Devils didn't squander strong pitching in Friday's game, as senior Troy Caradonna paced the offense with three hits and three runs batted in en route to a 7-3 victory.
After allowing two first-inning runs, senior Jeff Alleva shut down the Panthers before giving way to junior Zach Schreiber (1-0), who earned the win by permitting only one run in four innings of relief.
Caradonna snapped out of an early season funk with RBI singles in the first and third, a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the fifth, and a double in the seventh.
"The first couple of games, I was tense, and trying to hit the ball 900 feet," Caradonna said. "Tonight, I was a lot more relaxed."
The Blue Devils hope that the weather subsides and their strong pitching continues when they host North Carolina A&T Wednesday and Radford this weekend.
"We were pretty happy with how we played, and especially with our pitching in both games," Dilucchio said. "We feel pretty confident that we'll get a win Wednesday and then a sweep this weekend."
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