On a cold, drizzly night at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, the hot bat belonged to a Blue Devil freshman at the bottom of the order.
Freshman catcher Chris Proctor notched two hits and two RBIs from the ninth spot in the lineup and three Duke pitchers held Campbell to just three hits as the Blue Devils got over the hump Tuesday, shutting out the Fighting Camels 4-0. In his first start in a Duke uniform, former Cornell right-hander Kellen Urbon tossed five innings—four of them three-up, three-down frames—to pick up the win, the Blue Devils’ first against Campbell since 2012.
Urbon took advantage of the Fighting Camels’ aggressive approach at the plate, needing just 16 pitches to get through the first two frames. The San Diego native pounded the strike zone all night, putting 42 of his 55 pitches inside the strike zone and keeping Campbell off balance with sliders early in the count.
“Not a lot of people sit [first-pitch] slider, so if I can drop one in there, I have the advantage,” Urbon said. “I was really trying to throw strikes and trying to get early contact, just trying to get outs and take each inning individually and not look too much into pitch count.”
Campbell (2-2) tried to keep Duke on its toes by showing bunt throughout the game, but the Blue Devils (3-1) did a good job handling the steady diet of ground balls that Urbon, Kevin Lewallyn and Luke Whitten served up. Two of the Fighting Camels’ three hits were bunts, and the third did not escape the infield.
As dominant as Duke’s pitching was, Pollard’s lineup had some trouble of its own solving Campbell starter Michael Horrell, managing just four base-runners before exploding in the fifth.
The Blue Devils scratched across their first run on an error, a sacrifice bunt and a fielder’s choice. Shortstop Zack Kone led off with a chopper to his counterpart, but the throw skipped wide of first base and out of play, moving the freshman to second base. Center fielder Evan Dougherty advanced Kone with a well-executed bunt in front of the plate, and with the infield in, Proctor’s grounder to second base brought Kone home safely as catcher J.D. Andreessen had to smother a bouncing throw.
“That’s the formula. We put the pressure on with our speed, we got down the line good,” Pollard said. “Guys can’t relax on any throw. We finally got one thrown away. If you get down the line that good, you’ll create some offense for yourself.”
The Blue Devils were not done, though, as leadoff hitter Max Miller sliced a line drive the other way that looked like it would score Proctor—except it got lodged underneath the fence down the right field line. With Proctor forced to stop at third and Miller on second, freshman Jimmy Herron lined a single into center field to plate Proctor and chase Horrell.
Sophomore Peter Zyla tacked on one more run on the second pitch he saw from reliever Zach Minnick, chopping a fielder’s choice to first base that brought in Miller.
Proctor—who improved his early-season average to .571 with two hits in four trips to the plate Tuesday—was kept busy all night behind the dish as well, springing up time and again as the Fighting Camels tried to generate some offense with small ball. The freshman fielded two bunts cleanly and made a couple of throws to first base on dropped third strikes to keep Urbon out of the stretch.
Senior Kevin Lewallyn took the ball from Urbon in the sixth and immediately created his own jam, walking the leadoff hitter and then lobbing a toss to first on a sacrifice bunt that Adam Wyse beat out for a base hit. Another sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out, but Lewallyn struck out pinch-hitter Michael Van Degna and induced an inning-ending ground ball to emerge unscathed.
Kone charged hard to pick up the grounder and make a quick throw on the run, just beating Anthony Lopez to the bag despite pleas from the Campbell coaching staff to the contrary. The freshman—who spent the fall and much of the preseason working his way back from Tommy John surgery—made eight perfect throws on the night, but none more important than that one to strand two Fighting Camels.
“That play that he made to get us off the field in the sixth—I don’t care if you’re a freshman or a senior, that’s a heck of a play,” Pollard said. “This was not an easy night to play defense—it’s a great park and obviously the field played great tonight, but it’s damp, the balls are wet. We had to make a ton of plays in the infield and we made every single one of them.”
Duke’s bats went quiet after the three-run fifth but woke up again in the eighth, tacking on an insurance run with a two-out rally. Center fielder Evan Dougherty smacked a double over the third baseman's head, and Proctor promptly brought him home with a clean single to left.
The extra run allowed Pollard to leave senior reliever Nick Hendrix in the bullpen and keep Whitten on the mound for the ninth, and the sophomore retired the side in order to secure the Blue Devils’ first shutout of the year.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.