After struggling Friday to an 11-1 defeat, unable to hit against one of the best collegiate pitchers, the baseball team (13-15, 0-5 in the ACC) came back Saturday with a strong performance but again fell 7-4 at No. 19 Wake Forest (19-7, 5-2).
Friday, Kyle Sleeth won his 26th consecutive game for Wake Forest, tying an NCAA record.
Sleeth struck out 13 Blue Devils and held Duke to seven hits.
"We were facing one of the best college pitchers in the country," Adam Murray said. "He was everything he was built up to be. You need to hit to win and we just didn't hit."
Duke's only run came in the top of the first when a Brian Patrick solo home run bounced off the top of the wall. After the blast, the Blue Devils only managed to get two runners into scoring position.
The Demon Deacons got on the board in the third against Duke starter Jeff Alleva. Ryan Johnson smacked an RBI single and Jamie D'Antona and Jeff Rusiecki hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to give Wake a 3-1 advantage.
With Sleeth was shutting down the Blue Devils, Wake extended its lead with a trio of homers. In the fourth, Johnson slammed a three-run blast over the fence.
The shot was the seventh consecutive hit for Johnson, whose average climbed to .474 following the game.
The Demon Deacon scoring frenzy continued in the sixth with a D'Antona two run shot. The final runs of the game came on an eighth-inning, three-run homer by Steve Lefaivre.
In the series' second game Saturday night, the Blue Devils again got on the board first.
Murray led off the game with a single and then stole second base, putting himself in scoring position. Next, Patrick smacked a single down the right field line to drive in Murray for the game's first run.
After a Tim Layden walk, Troy Caradonna hit an RBI single to bring around Patrick.
Despite having runners on the corners without an out, Tim Morley, the Wake starter, got out of the inning without a scratch.
Unable to take advantage of the base runners, the Blue Devils hit into a double play followed by a pop up.
"We were playing really hard," Murray said. "Russell [Durfee] was throwing a great game for us. Everyone was excited about the prospect of beating them."
Cooling off the Duke bats, play was suspended in the second by a 25-minute rain delay.
The Blue Devils retained their 3-0 advantage until the bottom of the third when Wake pulled within one on consecutive doubles and a sacrifice fly.
Patrick recorded his second RBI of the game for Duke by knocking in Michael Golom on a sacrifice fly.
Wake fought back in the fifth when the Blue Devils made a number of mistakes, including a fielding error.
Durfee was then pulled with one out in the fifth after giving up four runs on the same number of hits and striking out three.
Zach Schreiber entered the game for the Blue Devils and lacked control of his pitches.
He later walked Rusiecki with the bases loaded and then threw a wild pitch to allow another Wake player to cross the plate.
"We made a couple costly errors," Murray said. "You can never give a team like Wake an extra out. Teams like that are going to make you pay."
The Demon Deacons took the lead for good in the seventh as a D'Antona double into the left-center gap drove in Rusiecki.
Hanson picked up the win for Wake to move to 4-1 on the year and Duke's Tim Layden (0-2) suffered the loss after pitching just one inning of relief.
"We didn't take advantage of some opportunities that we had which would have made the game a completely different story," Murray said.
Sunday's final game was rained out and has yet to be rescheduled.
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