Lucks deserts baseball, Camels clobber Blue Devils, 8-5

As the old saying goes, "It's better to be lucky than good." Monday afternoon at historic Jack Coombs Field, the Blue Devils were neither good nor lucky as they fell to Campbell, 8-5.

With the loss, Duke falls to 32-12-1, 7-8 in the Atlantic Coast Conference--but more important, the loss dims the NCAA tournament hopes the Blue Devils once fostered.

The game was tied at 4-4 heading into the fateful eighth-inning. Phil Harrell (3-4), the starter and eventual loser, was still laboring on the mound. Harrell plunked the lead-off hitter Dennis Brinson on the arm to put the go-ahead run on base.

Mark Fitzgerald then sacrificed Brinson to second before Brian Hucks grounded out to bring up the number nine hitter, Ed Gay. Gay came up big for the Camels, lining a single through the hole to bring Brinson around to score.

Then in the bottom half of the inning, the Blue Devils put themselves in a position to steal a victory. Sean McNally leaned into a pitch to give Duke a baserunner.

Mike Olexa followed with a single and Luis Duarte laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to put runners on the corners with only one out. Jeff Piscorik then pinch-hit for Matt Harrell and was intentionally walked to load the bases for Cass Hopkins.

Hopkins then hit the ball on the nose, but unfortunately it was right at Kent Cox, the Camel third baseman, who fired to second to double off Olexa and end the inning.

Then in the ninth, the wheels fell off for the Blue Devils. Ryan Jackson, who started the game in center field, moved in to the mound to try and maintain the Blue Devils' one run deficit.

With Harrell on the bench, Mike King had assumed the catching duties in the ninth inning. Brinson broke for second after the pitch, and King stepped forward and threw to second. Cox, then broke for the plate while the throw from Duarte came in high.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Blue Devils tried to add another chapter to the Jack Coombs Field memory book. Sean McNally stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and only one out.

But McNally could only manage a bouncing ball to second, scoring King. Then with the tying run still at the plate Olexa hit a line drive that hooked toward the right field corner.

But Campbell's Josh Maddocks was there to make the diving catch and send the Blue Devils looking for answers.

"We did not do anything right today," head coach Steve Traylor said. "We did not have good pitching, or clutch hitting. We did not execute. We did not field ground balls. We are not a good enough team to just show up and beat a team. We have to work hard for every win we get. Today, we did not do that."

The Camels came flying out of the gates, scoring single runs in the first three innings to take an early 3-0 lead.

In the third inning the Blue Devil's offense awoke as Harrell worked the Campbell starter for a walk. After Hopkins and King popped out, Jackson hit a liner to the wall in left-center, plating Harrell and taking third for himself.

Pinoni then followed with a single to bring the Blue Devils within one, 2-1.

In his next trip to the plate in the fifth, Jackson gave the Blue Devils the lead with a two-run homer over the right field wall.

Campbell knotted the game at four in the seventh, when Curlee hit a Harrell pitch into the trees in left center. This set the stage for the Blue Devils' late inning collapse.

"We did not deserve to win today," Traylor said. "Campbell did, they played a great game. The executed all day long. They came up with the clutch hitsDI do not know how many two-out RBI's they had. We deserved to lose today."