Although the baseball team consistently drew full crowds this weekend at Jack Coombs Field, the Blue Devils could not hold off Wake Forest's offensive power, dropping all three games of the series.
On Friday, Duke (12-29, 4-14 in the ACC) scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to close within one in the series opener, but the Blue Devils failed to close the final gap as they lost a tough, back-and-forth game to the Demon Deacons (28-12, 12-6), 10-9.
Saturday and Sunday's games yielded similar outcomes as the Blue Devils fell to the Demon Deacons 10-2 and 13-3, respectively.
The Demon Deacon bats were on fire, as Wake Forest scored 33 runs to Duke's 14 in the series sweep. Overall, there were 11 home runs knocked out over the weekend, with 10 of the 11 coming off Demon Deacon bats.
"Wake Forest has a really good team and they swung the bats well the whole series," Duke head coach Sean McNally said. "[Give] a lot of credit to them.... We swung the bats well and battled and competed. They just swung the bats a little bit better."
Sunday afternoon, Wake Forest wasted no time before scoring as lead-off hitter Matt Antonelli laced one over the left-field fence to immediately put the Demon Deacons on the board. Evan Ocheltree, who had already homered twice in Saturday's contest, knocked a two-run homer over the right-field wall to give Wake Forest a 3-0 lead in the first inning.
After the Demon Deacons scored one run each in the second and third innings to bring the score to 5-0, Duke powered its way onto the board with a solo shot to center field by first baseman Jonathan Nicolla in the fourth.
The following inning, Blue Devil Jimmy Gallagher advanced to second on a throwing error to first. Making his way to third on a passed ball, Gallagher scored on an RBI double laced into right field by Javier Socorro. Although Tim Sherlock plated Socorro with a hit down the right-field line, Sherlock was thrown out trying to stretch his double into a triple to end the inning, bringing the score to 5-3.
That was the closest the Blue Devils would get to the Demon Deacons, as Wake Forest scored two more runs in the sixth and then broke away with a five-run seventh inning. They sealed the game with a solo home run by first baseman Brendan Enick in the ninth inning to end the scoring at 13-3.
Although Duke batted .316 as a team over the weekend, the Demon Deacon pitchers shut down the Blue Devils with runners in scoring position.
"I thought they gave us some opportunities," McNally said. "We hit the ball hard at times, but it's just as much as when you hit it as how you hit it.... We just didn't get any big hits. We didn't get any two out hits. But, you also have to give credit to the guys Wake Forest had on the mound because the pitchers always get a little bit tougher in that spot, and this weekend they were certainly better than us."
Although the Demon Deacons' batters hit Duke's pitching very well, the Blue Devils played well in the field to turn in a solid overall defensive performance. Duke committed only two errors compared to Wake Forest's seven.
"One thing we did do the whole series is we caught the ball well," McNally said. "We gave ourselves a chance in that regard. At times we caught the ball well and made the routine play-that's what we stress. We did that this week and I feel good about that."
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