Duke opened its ACC season with its first series loss of the year, dropping two of three at Jack Coombs Field to Maryland this weekend.
The Blue Devils (5-10, 1-2 in the ACC) took the first game of the series Friday, 4-2, behind a complete game from junior Danny Otero. Otero (3-0) allowed just one earned run on seven hits while recording a career-high eight strikeouts.
Maryland (6-7, 2-1) bounced back Saturday, however, when Nick Jowers laced a two-run double in the seventh inning to snap a 3-3 tie. Brett Cecil closed the door on Duke, working the final inning and two-thirds for his third save of the season.
Sunday's game was an extra-inning classic as the Terrapins rallied for a 9-8 win in 12 innings. The Blue Devils surrendered a five-run lead and squandered an opportunity to pull out the win in the final inning.
"The more we get our guys in tough situations, the more experience we're going to have," head coach Sean McNally said. "That was a really well-played game on both sides, and it's disappointing to be on the wrong end of it. We just didn't get the right hit at the right time."
Maryland jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second when Jowers ripped a bases-clearing, three-run double with two outs. Duke responded quickly, however, with consecutive singles to lead off the third by Kyle Kreick and Jonathan Anderson. Shortstop Brett Bartles worked a walk two outs later, loading the bases for clean-up hitter Jimmy Gallagher. The sophomore rocked the first pitch he saw from Maryland's Mike Sufczynski over the right field wall for a grand slam and a 4-3 lead.
Duke played small ball in the middle innings to increase its lead, scoring a total of four times during the fourth and fifth frames on only four hits. A sacrifice by Kreick and groundout by Anderson plated a run in the fourth to make it 5-3. In the fifth, an Adam Murray RBI single and some Terrapin miscues led to three more runs and an 8-3 lead.
"We did a really good job early," McNally said. "Jimmy got a big hit and we were able to manufacture runs."
Maryland began its rally in the bottom of the sixth with four consecutive hits off Blue Devil starter Jonathan Anderson to cut the deficit to 8-5. Anderson responded by inducing back-to-back fly-outs, before surrendering a two-out, two-run triple by Wink Nolan to cut the lead to one.
The Terrapins continued their rally in the ninth. Jowers was again the spark, leading the inning off with a bloop double to left. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored the tying run on a groundout by Gerry Spessard.
In extra innings, Cecil once again shut down Duke. The Maryland reliever retired the first nine Blue Devils he faced in the ninth through eleventh innings, before Duke loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the twelfth. Cecil bore down, however, inducing a Gallagher foul pop-up and striking out Murray and pinch-hitter Ron Causey to escape unharmed.
"That says a lot about the kind of courage [Cecil's] got," McNally said. "He's tough, he's a confident lefty, and he went right at us."
The Terrapins finally broke through in the bottom of the inning with a two-out rally of their own. Matt Maropis worked a walk from Duke reliever Jim Perry before Chad Durakis singled to left. With two out and two on, Dan Benick gave Maryland the win in the game and the series with a bloop single that dropped in front of Daniel Palmer in left field.
Cecil (3-1) got the win for the Terrapins while Perry (0-2) absorbed the loss for Duke.
The Blue Devils will next take on LaSalle in a pair of home games March 7 and 8, both at 3 p.m.
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