Despite ninth-inning rallies Saturday and Sunday, the baseball team could not muster up enough offensive production, losing all three games of its series with Cincinnati at Jack Coombs Field this weekend.
“We haven’t been aggressive throughout the entire game or been up the entire game,” designated hitter Eric Baumann said. “We have our ups and downs, and until we stay up the entire game, we’re not going to win these ball games.”
Down 14-7 entering the bottom of the ninth Saturday, the Blue Devils (4-5) had their rally caps on. Baumann launched a grand slam with two outs to bring Duke to within one run of Cincinnati (3-3).
J.J. Koterba, Adam Murray and Javier Socorro loaded the bases with one out to start the inning. Brett Bartles knocked Koterba in with a single through the left side.
Bearcat pitcher Kyle Markle walked in a run and Bryan Smith popped out to the shortstop for the second out of the inning before Baumann stepped up to the plate. Ron Causey, who pinch hit for fellow freshman Brett Smith, came up empty, looking at a third strike to end the game at 14-13.
Six Duke pitchers saw time on the mound Saturday and collectively gave up eight earned runs to the Bearcats. But two Duke errors in the fifth inning helped Cincinnati score six unearned runs. The Bearcats gave up 11 earned runs to the Blue Devils over the course of the game, with their two remaining runs coming off of two errors in the fourth inning.
“It’s just baseball, and that happens. The ball just doesn’t bounce your way sometimes,” Baumann said. “The errors we’ve had have been huge—just bad situations, and that’s baseball. But, in order to wins these games, we need to swing the bats more consistently throughout the whole game.”
Similarly, in Sunday’s game, an error in the sixth inning gave Cincinnati two runs, bringing the score to 6-1. With two men on base, Bearcat catcher Jim Olds ripped a 2-1 pitch up the middle past righty Greg Burke. Bartles stopped the ball, but he could not come up with it to make a play.
Duke made another last-inning comeback attempt that fell short. Cincinnati’s Josh Kay, a right-handed sidearm reliever, showed off the movement of his pitches, striking out all three batters in the eighth inning, but Bartles started off the ninth with a line drive to rightfield.
With Bartles and Jimmy Gallagher on base with one out, head coach Bill Hillier put in lefty Corey Whiting to pinch hit for Causey, since the right-handed batters had trouble against Kay, Hillier said. Whiting hit a 1-0 pitch to left-centerfield that dropped before Cincinnati outfielder LaFringe Hayes could reach it. The ball rolled to the wall as Bartles and Gallagher scored. Whiting advanced to third and his two RBIs brought the score to 6-3.
Neither Josh Albert nor Murray could bring Whiting home, and they closed the game with a strikeout and a fly ball to rightfield, respectively.
“The pace of the game is slow,” Hillier said. “So, when it’s slow and you’re behind, it’s hard to get the adrenaline going. You have to string hits together to get excitement going. You have to make rally-killing plays to get energy going.”
Friday, the Blue Devils did not have that energy in the 3-1 loss to the Bearcats. Starting on the rubber, Danny Otero gave up two first-inning runs. Even though the team racked up 11 hits, Duke could not score more than one run in the game. Bartles earned the team’s only RBI on a single to right-centerfield in the bottom of the sixth.
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