Duke baseball rides 5 no-hit innings to win against Davidson

<p>Kennie Taylor had himself a weekend against Penn State.</p>

Kennie Taylor had himself a weekend against Penn State.

Despite losing three pitchers to the 2018 MLB Draft and seeing another regular starter from last season graduate, the Blue Devils continued excelling from the mound in the first week of the season Tuesday evening.

No. 22 Duke comfortably dispatched Davidson 7-3 on a chilly night at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park to stay unbeaten as junior Bill Chillari and senior Hunter Davis combined to no-hit the Wildcats through the first five innings. The Blue Devils struck out 14 Davidson hitters and allowed only three hits to shut down a lineup that scored 32 runs in a weekend sweep of Towson.

Chillari struck out all six Lehigh batters he faced in his appearance in Friday night's season opener, and the southpaw picked up where he left off to start Tuesday night's game. He quickly rolled through the first two innings and surrendered his first baserunner on an error in the third frame, but left him stranded with two strikeouts. Chillari has now worked 5 2/3 innings this season without giving up a hit.

"It was awesome. He pitched to contact, he was getting a lot of quick outs, he was efficient, really managed the game well," Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. "I think his offspeed is better [than last year]. I think in particular, his slider is better, and that’s a big difference."

While Chillari silenced the Wildcats' bats, the Blue Devils (4-0) did most of their damage on offense with a five-run third inning. Speedy junior Chase Cheek led off with a walk and a stolen base, and he scored on an RBI double down the left-field line from Rudy Maxwell, the freshman's first career extra-base hit. Freshman Ethan Murray drove Maxwell in with a single, and a three-run 384-foot bomb from Cornell graduate transfer Kyle Gallagher over the Blue Monster and onto the patio of the Tobacco Road Sports Cafe put an emphatic exclamation point on the inning.

"Obviously, the home run was a big blast, but he had other really good swings too," Pollard said. "Their second baseman took two hits away from him up the middle of the field. He could have had a three-hit night, but he’s seeing the ball well and taking good swings."

Duke tacked on another run in the fourth, with Cheek's speed once again playing a role in the rally. He hit a tailor-made double play ball right at the shortstop after a leadoff single, but got down the line fast enough to beat the throw from second baseman Matt Frey. After another stolen base, leadoff hitter Joey Loperfido drove him in with a two-out RBI single.

Cheek wasn't the only Blue Devil to make things happen on the base paths—Duke finished the night with four stolen bases.

"Chase really disrupted the game with his speed, got down the line good, did a good job of reading downward flight," Pollard said. "We were able to apply some pressure today. We were really good in the run game."

Davidson (3-1) pushed across its first run in the sixth inning with the help of some self-inflicted damage for the Blue Devils as Davis' command faltered. He walked the leadoff man and then gave up the Wildcats' first hit on the night on a single to right field. Davis hit the next batter to load the bases with nobody out, but minimized the damage with only a sacrifice fly to Davidson's credit the rest of the inning.

"Tip the hat to Hunter Davis for being able to kind of wiggle and manage his way through that with only one run scoring," Pollard said. "When you load the bases with nobody out and you only allow one run across the plate, you almost recapture momentum because it’s so deflating for an offense."

The Wildcats tacked on two runs thanks to a single, walk and double off Ben Gross in the eighth inning. But Duke added a run in the bottom half, and everybody in the Blue Devils' lineup finished with at least one hit.

Duke will continue its homestand with a three-game series against Northwestern this weekend starting Friday night at the DBAP.

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