Sometimes after their greatest victories, teams suffer letdowns.
Such an occurrence happened last night as the baseball team mustered just six hits in falling to the Campbell Camels, 7-2.
Things started off well for the Blue Devils (23-11, 6-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) in the second inning. Lead-off batter Michael Fletcher struck out, but reached first base on a third-strike wild pitch by Campbell starter Mike Corbitt. One out later, senior Jeff Staubach slammed a home run to right, staking the Blue Devils to a 2-0 lead.
The lead didn't last long, however, as Campbell (12-24) struck back for three runs in the bottom of the inning. Corbitt got a one-out single off Duke starter Jim Wendling, a junior whose record fell to 2-1 with the loss. It was the first of three hits on the day for Corbitt.
Campbell followed with another hit, and a Wendling balk sent the runners to second and third. Camels first baseman Mike Campbell then stroked a two-run single to tie the game. After a wild pitch moved Campbell into scoring position, left fielder Keith Sears knocked a one-out double to left center to give the Camels a lead they would not surrender.
"They had some clutch two-out hits to score runs, and we didn't hit at all," Duke coach Steve Traylor said.
Duke failed to mount any offense after the second inning, tallying only two more extra base hits on doubles by senior second baseman Frankie Chiou and freshman shortstop Vaughn Schill.
"When we got people in scoring position, we couldn't get the hits we needed to drive them in," Traylor said.
Campbell added to its lead in the fifth inning, tallying three runs on two hits and two walks. Dustin Brundrage led off the inning by receiving a free pass to first from Duke freshman reliever Brad Dupree, and advanced to third on a double by catcher William McLean. Dupree then walked Chris Warren to load the bases, prompting Traylor to replace him with Clayton Connor.
Connor got Corbitt to pop-up to left, but then second baseman Robert Marcano cleared the bases with a double down the left field line to extend Campbell's lead to 6-2.
The Camels added one more insurance run off sophomore Teddy Sullivan in the eighth.
In an effort to save his pitching staff for this weekend's ACC series against Maryland, Traylor used five pitchers in the game. The quintet combined to yield the seven runs, all earned, while allowing 12 hits.
"I would say the pitching was adequate," Traylor said. "We've been giving up seven runs and winning. We just didn't make good pitches with runners in scoring position."
Corbitt improved his record to 2-1, surrendering two runs on four hits in five innings. He struck out six while walking just one. Eric Lee pitched the final four shutout innings to earn the save for the Camels.
Despite the disappointing loss, Traylor remains hopeful for this weekend's series.
"This week has started the same as last weeks [a loss to East Carolina]," Traylor said. "But we came back to win [two-of three games over UNC] last weekend, and hopefully we'll do the same this weekend."
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