CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—After winning two series against ranked ACC opponents this season, Duke traveled down Tobacco Road to face its archrival, No. 1 North Carolina. The Tar Heels, however, lived up to their top ranking and swept the Blue Devils in a three-game weekend series.
Fueled by its starting pitching, North Carolina allowed Duke (22-20, 8-13 in the ACC) just three runs in the series, defeating the Blue Devils 7-1, 4-1 and 10-1 at Boshamer Stadium.
“They’re the number one team in the country and they played like it,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. “We’re obviously disappointed and our confidence is shaken, but that’s what the ACC will do to you.”
After a thunderstorm Friday postponed game one, junior Drew Van Orden (2-5) was on the mound Saturday to start the doubleheader against the Tar Heels (39-2, 18-2) instead of sophomore Trent Swart. Swart has started the opening game of every other ACC series this season.
“It’s hard when you have a doubleheader to pitch the second ballgame, because you have to sit around and watch that first ballgame unfold,” Pollard said. “My feeling has always been when you’re in a doubleheader like that and you have the choice, you start your best guy in the second game.”
Despite throwing six innings of one-run ball against then-No. 15 Georgia Tech two weeks ago, Van Orden’s outing was reminiscent of his performance last week against No. 6 Florida State, when he gave up seven runs in seven innings. The right-hander relinquished six runs—five earned—over 5.2 innings of work against North Carolina, but what hurt the Blue Devils the most were the free passes he gave to the Tar Heels. Van Orden surrendered three walks, a balk, threw a wild pitch and hit four different North Carolina players.
“Against really good teams, and North Carolina is a really good team, you can’t do that to yourself,” Pollard said.
The Tar Heels capitalized on Duke’s pitching miscues. North Carolina plated two runs in the first inning after Van Orden hit shortstop Michael Russell with a pitch with the bases loaded to score center fielder Chaz Frank. One pitch later, third baseman Colin Moran scored from third on a wild pitch. In the fourth inning, catcher Matt Roberts gave the Tar Heels a 3-0 lead after scoring from third on a passed ball, and in the fifth Russell was hit by a pitch for the second time and later scored on a Parks Jordan sacrifice fly.
Swart (4-3) appeared to be more settled than his teammate in game two, giving up only three runs—two earned—in six innings. North Carolina got to Swart early, with Frank, designated hitter Landon Lassiter and Moran loading the bases with no outs off a double, single and hit by pitch respectively. Swart induced back-to-back groundouts but Frank and Lassiter crossed the plate to give the Tar Heels an early 2-0 lead. North Carolina never looked back and tacked on two more runs to win 4-1.
“Trent pitched well enough to win the ballgame,” Pollard said. “We needed to execute better offensively.”
Although Duke came closer to winning in game two, game three was the most lopsided of the series in favor of North Carolina, which crushed the Blue Devils 10-1. The Tar Heels once again got an early first-inning lead when right fielder Brian Holberton smacked a three-run home run to right field. Blue Devil starter Robert Huber (5-4) rebounded in the second with a scoreless inning, but gave up four more runs before a fifth-inning exit.
“One of the things we need to fix is that we find ourselves playing out of the hole a lot,” Pollard said. “When you have a team like that who scores two or three runs in the first, you find yourself playing catchup the whole game.”
Duke third baseman Jordan Betts was the lone offensive bright spot, notching a hit in each game of the series. Betts provided the only offense for the Blue Devils in games one and two with a solo home run in each.
North Carolina’s stellar pitching limited Duke to only three runs in the entire series. The Tar Heels’ starting trio of Kent Emmanuel (8-1), Benton Moss (7-0) and Hobbs Johnson (2-0) is among the best rotations in the country, with each pitcher posting an ERA below 3.00.
“Carolina, the way they pitch, they make a lot of teams look bad offensively,” Pollard said. “And then you play [Florida State and North Carolina] back-to-back, it beats you up a little bit. We have to learn from the things we didn’t do well… and the good thing about baseball is that there’s not a lot of time to dwell on what happened. You just have to do a good job of regrouping.”
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