Despite winning their first ACC series in a month, the Blue Devils will have to sit through final exams with a sour taste in their mouths.
Duke finished off the last three innings of Saturday's rain-suspended game to beat Virginia Tech 4-3 Sunday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field. An eight-run sixth spotted the Hokies an 11-0 lead in the series finale, which Virginia Tech eventually claimed, 11-3. The 11 runs tied the most allowed in a game by the Blue Devils all season.
"You win a series which is nice, but it never feels as good when you drop the last one," Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. "We had a golden opportunity right there because if we win that, we've really clawed our way right back in the thick of things [in the ACC]. We've got two series left and we've got a chance if we have two good series to get ourselves right back in it, but we probably let an opportunity slip away from us a little bit there at the end."
Duke (24-19, 7-16 in the ACC) managed just one baserunner in its final two at-bats of Saturday's game—which was suspended after the top of the seventh—but did not need any insurance runs. Junior Kenny Koplove took the ball with two outs in the top of the eighth and induced a ground ball to strand two Hokie runners and get reliever Mitch Stallings out of a jam.
The Philadelphia native then worked a perfect ninth to pick up his ninth save of the year, sending a changeup past a waving Brendon Hayden—Virginia Tech's best hitter—for the final out.
"We figured out that that kid hits fastballs real hard," catcher Mike Rosenfeld said. "When [Koplove] did throw a fastball, he stayed away from him, and then he just change-upped him to death, really, and kind of got him to get out on his front foot a little bit."
Forty-five minutes later, the teams went at it again with Bailey Clark on the mound for the Blue Devils. After being held to three runs in the first two games of the series, the Hokie offense woke up.
Duke had an early scoring chance in the bottom of the second but failed to capitalize. Redshirt sophomore Jalen Phillips doubled to center and advanced to third on a wild pitch two batters later. Koplove, batting eighth, walked, setting up a first-and-third situation for freshman Evan Dougherty with two outs.
But before the center fielder had a chance to swing the bat, Koplove broke for second, drawing a throw from Virginia Tech starter Packy Naughton. As Koplove stayed alive in a rundown, Phillips broke for the plate, but Hokie shortstop Alex Perez fired to the plate to cut down the first baseman and keep the game scoreless.
A half-inning later, Virginia Tech (20-24, 9-14 in the ACC) did what the Blue Devils could not, manufacturing a run to grab a 1-0 advantage in the top of the third. Catcher Andrew Mogg set the table with a leadoff double and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Tufts. Mogg came home on a sacrifice fly by leadoff hitter Saige Jenco.
Clark ran into more trouble in the fourth. After allowing a hit to the leadoff batter for the fourth consecutive frame, the sophomore tried to sneak a first-pitch fastball by Hayden, who sent it to the warning track in left-center field for an RBI double. A groundout with runners on the corners followed to push the lead to 3-0 and Clark's second walk of the inning brought Pollard out of the dugout to make a pitching change. Freshman Luke Whitten escaped a two-on, one-out jam with a ground ball that turned into a 6-4-3 double play.
"I thought [Clark] threw the ball well early and then they got the two hits at the beginning of the inning," Pollard said. "In that situation, we've got to do a good job of minimizing—we can't let that inning blow up on us. Part of it is he hasn't had a lot of work since he's come back from the arm tightness, but it's just a process of learning how to fight through those moments and how to slow things down and make pitches."
With Clark making it through just 3 1/3 innings and key relievers Stallings and Koplove pitching earlier in the afternoon, Pollard turned to his bullpen needing 5 2/3 innings of work. Trailing 3-0 heading into the sixth, Duke was still in a position to claw its way back into the game. But the Hokies batted around in the top half of the frame, plating eight runs on just four hits against three Blue Devil pitchers.
Hayden started things off with an infield single before Whitten lost his command, allowing a walk, a hit by pitch and another walk to plate Hayden, who racked up six RBIs on the weekend. Freshman Ryan Day came on to try and stop the bleeding but could not shut down the Hokies, giving up three runs on a single and two bases-loaded walks without recording an out.
Conner Stevens relieved Day and was tagged with a pair of two-run singles before a groundout to third finally brought Duke back into the home dugout. Freshman Jack Labosky worked three-up, three-down innings in the seventh and eighth, but the damage had already been done.
"We haven't done that very often this year, but it's frustrating when you're beating yourself instead of them beating us," Pollard said. "If they just hit it all around the ballpark, you can live with that, you tip your hat. That happens some days, but a lot of what happened to us today was self-inflicted because we just didn't make pitches to get off the field."
Duke finally got on the board in the eighth on an RBI single by freshman Peter Zyla and an RBI groundout by pinch-hitter Reed Anthes. Dougherty added a run-scoring single in the ninth to bring the score to 11-3, making the eight-run sixth the difference in the ball-game.
Following the game, the Blue Devils gathered behind home plate to shave their heads in partnership with the Vs. Cancer organization for the third consecutive year. Pollard said the team has raised $6,000 for the Duke Children's Hospital to date.
The Blue Devils will not play a midweek game this week due to final exams and will host N.C. Central in a nonconference doubleheader Sunday, with the first game set for a 1 p.m. first pitch.
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