Rarely is winning one game in a three-game series considered a step in the right direction. But when the baseball team plays at Clemson, where it trails 26-3 in the all-time series, one out of three is not half bad.
Frankie Chiou scored the go-ahead run in the top of the tenth inning Saturday to give Duke (28-16, 8-10 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) a 4-3 victory. However, the Tigers (28-12, 9-6) sandwiched a pair of blowouts, 11-1 and 14-2, around their loss to capture the series.
"I told [my team] anybody that comes down here and wins a game in a three game series has got to consider that a successful series," Duke coach Steve Traylor said.
After an anemic offensive performance in Friday's 11-1 loss, Traylor decided to shake up his batting order. The new look had Chiou leading-off, followed by the team's hottest hitter of late, Adam Geis, and then Vaughn Schill, who had been solidly entrenched as the team's lead-off hitter.
In the top half of the tenth inning on Saturday, the trio made Traylor look like a genius.
With two outs, Chiou doubled to center off Clemson reliever Scott Clackum. Geis then drew a base on balls to bring Schill, the team's top hitter at .413, to the plate. Schill did not disappoint, drilling a single up the middle to score Chiou.
"Geis is swinging the bat better than anybody on the team, so we wanted to get him higher in the order and get him more at-bats," Traylor said. "Schill has been very consistent, so we wanted to get him in the position where he's going to have RBI possibilities, and it turned out great in that second game."
The changes in the batting order were not the only new wrinkle Traylor brought to the series. Earlier in the week, Traylor moved Chris Capuano, his No. 2 starter for most of the season, to the bullpen to bolster the faltering relief corps, and named Clayton Connor, his most reliable middle reliever, as the starting pitcher on Saturday.
Connor and Capuano proved instrumental in Saturday's win. Connor held the Tigers to two runs and five hits in his six and one-third innings of work.
Not to be outdone, Capuano closed out the game with a brilliant three and two-thirds innings, and slammed the door in the tenth inning by retiring Clemson's All-American candidate Matthew LeCroy and clean-up hitter Jason Embler with a runner on base.
"There were 2,300 people in the stands, and it was an extra-inning game," Traylor said. "[Capuano's] a freshman out there in his second relief appearance, and he went right after them. He handled the situation very well and with a lot of maturity."
In Sunday's game, the Blue Devils took an early lead for the third straight day on RBIs by Michael Fletcher and Randy Goodroe. The Tigers, however, reeled off 14 unanswered runs against Steven Cowie and nearly the entire Duke bullpen to dash any hopes the Blue Devils had of stealing the series.
Cowie began the contest not having given up an earned run in any of his starts, and managed to keep the Clemson bats at bay for the first four innings, leaving the game trailing only 3-2.
With Cowie still on a pitch-count, Traylor replaced him with Steve Schroeder to start the fifth inning. Four Tiger hits and a Jeff Becker error finished Schroeder, who surrendered four runs-only one earned-in two-thirds of an inning.
The rest of the day did not go much better for Duke. Little-used relievers Tim Hughes and Les Aiello combined to give up seven runs in an inning and one-third, leading to the final of 14-2. Jim Fishburn pitched the final inning and two-thirds, allowing a hit and walking two.
"We ran everybody in there," Traylor said. "We've got to get some quality innings out of that group of pitchers. Fishburn moved to the head of that class with his performance."
Though Schill continued to pound ACC pitching with a 6-of-13 weekend, the rest of the team struggled to provide any offense. Clemson starting pitchers Ryan Mottl, Scott Hauser and Pat Collins combined to toss 22 innings, while allowing only six runs.
"The quality of their pitchers probably hurt us more than their environment," Traylor said. "If we don't do well, it's not out of intimidation, it's just not getting the job done against a quality opponent."
Clemson outscored Duke 28-7 in the series and outhit the Blue Devils 35-24.
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