Coming off recent success against N.C. State and UNC-Wilmington, the baseball team (14-12, 3-3 in ACC) lost its first conference series at Maryland (10-12, 2-4) this weekend. Though Duke convincingly won the first game of the series 13-5, late inning Terrapin runs gave the home team the advantage and the wins Saturday and Sunday.
Tim Layden won his third game of the season Friday night when he pitched 5.1 innings, struck out nine batters, and only walked one. Blake Walker picked up his third save, relieving Layden in the fifth inning. In addition to his pitching, Layden went 2-for-3 from the plate, scoring three runs and picking up an RBI.
En route to Friday's win, the Blue Devils jumped to an early start with a three-run first inning against Maryland starter Kevin Hart. In the sixth, a bench-clearing incident kept the teams playing hard though the end of the game. Though Maryland was able to rally for four runs in the sixth inning, the damage had already been done, and Duke answered with a pair of four-run innings of its own.
Mike Miello, who went 3-for 5, was a homerun shy of hitting for the cycle and led the Blue Devils with four RBIs. His .400 batting average leads the team with the exception of Tony Bajoczky, who has only appeared at the plate three times this season.
"I feel really good at the plate," Miello said. "And I love the opportunity to be the guy, who, in clutch situations, gets it done." Despite winning Friday's game with relative ease, the Blue Devils lost 6-4 Saturday when Maryland's Hart hit a walk off two-run homerun in the ninth. Maryland had gained a 3-0 advantage by the third inning and Duke was kept off the scoreboard until the fifth. Adam Murray and Javier Socorro each singled, and Murray was driven in by Layden on an ensuing single to rightfield.
Duke scored a couple of runs in the seventh to tie the score at three apiece, but the Terps scored in the bottom of the inning to regain the lead. In the top of the eighth inning, Miello drew a walk and Brian Hernandez advanced Miello to second on a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher. With no outs and the tying run on second, Corey Whiting singled up the middle scoring Miello.
While Duke could not manufacture any runs in the ninth, Hart's homerun gave Maryland its first conference win of the season.
With the series tied, and both teams emotionally invested in the games, Greg Burke, who leads the Duke starters with a 2.52 ERA, kept Maryland scoreless until the eighth inning of Sunday's game, when he gave up a 1-0 lead. The Blue Devils scored that run in the first inning when Miello singled through the right side, knocking in Socorro. However, in the eighth inning, Maryland's Truan Mehl singled up the middle to start the inning and subsequently stole second. Matt Maropis scored Mehl tying the game at one. With two outs, Hart singled to the shortstop and advanced Maropis to second. Greg Burke was relieved by Billy Muldowny, who walked his first batter, Jason Maxey. The bases were loaded for Brian Jarosinski, who singled through the left side and brought in two runs to give the Terps a 3-1 lead and ultimately the win.
"[The loss] left a bad taste in our mouth," Miello said. "It was the one team we didn't want to lose to. Losing a game at the very end, it's more dramatic and you can feel it a little more intensely."
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