After starting the year 0-4 in Arizona, the Blue Devils had to make a statement in their first home series to build some confidence in their pitching staff and pick up some much-needed early-season victories.
Thanks to the team's most complete pitching performance of the year Sunday, Duke did just that.
The Blue Devils secured two out of three games against Army this weekend at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Thanks to strong pitching from redshirt junior starter James Ziemba and senior reliever Karl Blum, Duke was able to preserve an 8-5 lead in Friday's series opener despite some uncharacteristic errors in the field.
Although Army responded with a grand slam to clinch the second matchup 9-5 Saturday and threatened to come back again in Sunday's rubber match, Blum and junior reliever Jack Labosky shut the door to protect the Blue Devils' lead following junior Ryan Day's quality start in a 5-1 victory.
“We played defense in the last two ballgames like we all expect us to play defense,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. “We're settling in and finding our rhythm defensively. We won't always be perfect but you can continue to expect to see a good defense clung out there on the field.”
In the seventh inning of Sunday's third game, the Blue Devils (3-5) held a 3-0 lead after Day retired 10 straight hitters between the third and sixth innings. However, when junior Mitch Stallings relieved Day on the mound, Army (2-5) threatened with a single through the right side to put men on first and second with no outs. An RBI double from Kris Lindner gave the Black Knights their first run, and Pollard quickly yanked Stallings to put Blum in a pressure situation.
The Toms River, N.J., native delivered, striking out two Black Knights in a row, and an ensuing web gem from Labosky got Duke out of the jam.
“[Karl's run] is the most exciting part about baseball,” Day said. “Coach Pollard said in the post-game speech that that's what we live for. That's what it's all about. Just knowing you have a guy who is going to step up for you right there and close the door for you is just the greatest feeling in baseball.”
Army advanced a runner to third base again in the eighth inning, but a harmless popup to second base ended the Black Knights' final threat of the day. After adding an insurance run in the seventh frame thanks to one of Army's four errors, the Blue Devils made it 5-1 in the eighth by taking advantage of a wild pitch.
Duke initially got on the scoreboard in the third inning when Labosky plated junior Griffin Conine with a two-out double, and took advantage of another Black Knight error in the sixth when Bellinger brought Labosky home with a double and Zack Kone picked up an RBI with a sacrifice fly to give the Blue Devils their 3-0 lead.
Although Duke was the team taking advantage of Army's four errors and four wild pitches Sunday, the Blue Devils started the series with their own miscues in the field.
All five of the Black Knights' runs were unearned as Ziemba allowed only four hits in 6.1 innings for his first win of the season Friday. Army took an early 2-0 lead following a fielding error in the top of the first inning, but a Labosky home run got Duke on the board in the bottom of the frame and the Blue Devils claimed the lead in the third.
After putting the team ahead with an RBI single, Bellinger launched a two-run home run off the facing of the outfield patio to give Duke some cushion in the fifth, and the Blue Devils ran out to a 7-2 lead following two more runs in the sixth inning. Although a few more Duke errors let the Black Knights crawl to within a pair at 7-5, the Blue Devils added an insurance run on pinch hitter Jalen Phillips' RBI triple and got scoreless innings on the mound from Blum and Labosky to escape 8-5.
“It wasn't a clean ball game,” Pollard said. “Obviously, we had five errors. We gave them some extra opportunities. All five runs were unearned, but we persevered through it. James settled in and gave us a good start, and then you had guys come in behind him and really throw the baseball well.”
The first and third games gave Duke's pitching staff some much-needed confidence, but the Blue Devils blew a 5-1 lead Saturday despite another solid effort from their starter.
Duke freshman Adam Laskey tossed 5.2 innings, surrendering three runs and exiting with his team up 5-3 after Army notched three doubles to cut its lead in half. Despite a hot start that saw Conine, Labosky and Kennie Taylor notch RBI base hits, the Blue Devils could not get anything going in the final four innings, only registering two hits against Matt Ball.
As Duke's bats went cold, the Black Knights surged ahead, seizing control on Alex Dickerson's grand slam in the seventh off Hunter Davis. Army sealed the win with three two-out hits against reliever Zack Kesterson, plating two more runs to hand the Blue Devils their first home loss of the season.
“Home runs happen,” Pollard said. “You get leads in this game, you lose leads in this game, and you need to be resilient enough to battle back and keep competing when that happens. We didn't respond very well after we lost the lead on Saturday.”
Duke was able to gut out a win Sunday, though, and will be right back in action Monday at 3 p.m. when it hosts Southern California.
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