The baseball team (14-25, 0-14 in the ACC) endured another somber weekend with a tough in-conference foe. The losses - 5-3 and 11-5 Saturday, and 11-5 Sunday - to North Carolina (31-11, 10-5), rendered the team winless in 14 ACC matches.
The losing didn't agree well with Duke players.
"It was a tough weekend," freshman Javier Socorro said. "We have been struggling. There aren't many positive things that you can take from any time when you lose three games."
Duke managed to keep it competitive in the first game, after jumping ahead 2-0 in the second.
The Tar Heels would recover, however, scoring two in the fifth, another pair in the sixth, and a final run in the eighth. Sophomore Senterrio Landrum hit a ninth-inning solo homerun, his second on the season, but it was not nearly enough.
The first-game was made even more painful by the fact that Duke's pitching had been able to frustrate UNC's offense.
Freshman Russell Durfee led the charge, giving up only one run on five hits and no walks.
"Any times Russell Durfee is out there, we feel like we have a great chance," said Socorro. "As he matures and is able to throw more and more innings, we will be better off as a team."
Yet Duke failed to replicate its solid pitching effort over the next two games, allowing 22 North Carolina runs on .357 batting.
"The story with us all year has been that, if we pitch well, we'll be competitive," said freshman Grant Stanley said. "But lately our pitching has been a little inconsistent."
Duke senior Brian Patrick continued an impressive streak of hitting, smashing three homeruns on the weekend while extending his career-high hitting streak to 16 games.
Patrick's hot hitting led teammates to speculate about a possible future in professional baseball.
"In the ACC, you see tons of scouts," Stanley said. "If you succeed in this conference, you're one of the best guys in college baseball. He's definitely putting his name on the map. I don't think he's done playing baseball."
Duke plays UNC-Wilmington Wednesday at seven p.m. on Jack Coombs Field.
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