Behind a lights-out pitching performance from Marcus Stroman in which he allowed just one run over seven innings, Duke (13-4, 2-1 in the ACC) defeated N.C. State 7-1 Sunday afternoon to clinch their opening ACC series of the season.
Stroman was dominant, surrendering only five hits while striking out seven batters and walking none.
“He’s as good as any pitcher in the league,” head coach Sean McNally said. “To have him throw on Sunday with a chance to win the series, that’s where we’re hoping to be.”
While Stroman kept the Wolfpack (8-7, 1-2) off the scoreboard, the Blue Devils continued to take advantage of scattered offensive bursts to establish their lead. After two innings of scoreless baseball, the Duke bats came alive in the bottom of the third.
David Perkins started the inning with a single to left, followed by a base knock to center from Chris Marconcini. After Jeff Kremer walked, Dennis O’Grady stepped up with two outs and hit a single through the left side, scoring Perkins and Marconcini to make the score 2-0.
Anthony D’Alessandro continued the scoring by blasting a home run over the wall in right to make it a five-run Blue Devil lead.
“Hitting is contagious,” D’Alessandro said. “Once we start going I guess we just feel more confident, and we start stringing together a few hits.”
The Blue Devils struggled to find that offensive prowess Friday night, as they were overpowered by N.C. State’s Cory Mazzoni. The Wolfpack pitcher limited Duke to only one earned run off six hits in his seven innings of work.
“He’s very good, and our guys were anxious,” McNally said. “We have a lot of young guys, and he’s a different caliber pitcher…. We gave away some at-bats but we hung in there, and that’s what this group has done. We made it a game in the end.”
Although Duke rallied to load the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the hot-hitting Perkins, who was 3-for-4 at that point, grounded out to end the game.
Duke starter Chase Bebout held the Wolfpack to two runs over the first five innings until he was nailed on the arm with a line-drive in the sixth. Bebout had to leave the game, but X-rays were negative, and McNally said that he expects the sophomore to play this coming weekend.
After the loss Friday, the young Blue Devils showed their resilience by bouncing back with an 8-3 win Saturday. Marconcini smashed two triples and Kremer added the team’s first home run of the season to lead the offensive effort.
“We bounced back,” McNally said. “It’s kind of emblematic of what we’ve done this year. We bounce back.”
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