Taking a break from Atlantic Coast Conference action this weekend, the baseball team journeyed to Florida to take on the No. 3 Miami Hurricanes, a Goliath of college baseball in recent decades. The Blue Devils took their slingshot and fired a stone at mighty Miami-the Hurricanes wobbled and staggered but remained standing.
Behind a powerful offense which produces 8.6 runs per contest, Miami (32-13) swept the series from Duke (27-19, 8-10 in the ACC), by counts of 6-2, 9-5 and 17-1. However, considering the Blue Devils kept all three games close until the late innings against a team that had swept ACC leader No. 4 Georgia Tech the previous weekend by a combined score of 31-5, the team's performance left Duke coach Steve Traylor with nothing but praise.
"If you talked to Miami's people, they were impressed with the way we played them for two and a half games," Traylor said. "We played great defense the whole series-we got outstanding starting pitching. We broke down some in the bullpen, but overall we played some great baseball. [Miami is] by far the best team I've seen in a couple of years."
After a week of inactivity, Clayton Connor took the opening start for the Blue Devils in the series. The crafty left-hander scattered eight hits in six innings, and yielded only four runs to a Miami lineup which features six regulars hitting over .340.
"He had an outstanding start," Traylor said. "Clayton has been one of our most consistent pitchers. He gave us another good performance, took us to the late innings. He did all you can ask-he was definitely a bright spot."
Hanging on to a 2-1 lead midway through the game, the Hurricanes broke the contest open with a pair of runs in the sixth and seventh innings. All-American candidate Pat Burrell keyed the surge with a two-run home run in the sixth inning.
Hurricane staff ace J.D. Arteaga shut down the Blue Devils with seven innings of two-run baseball. A Jeff Becker solo blast and John Benik's RBI single accounted for the only Blue Devils runs on the day.
Still bothered by a triceps injury, Duke hurler Richard Dishman made a surprising relief appearance Friday. The right-hander labored through an inning and two-thirds, giving up three hits and two runs, walking three and striking out four.
"He was rusty, he wasn't sharp at all," Traylor said. "He did not have very good command, but he's going to have to pitch some innings for us."
In the second game, the Blue Devils jumped all over Hurricane starter Darin Spassoff in the opening inning. Shortstop Vaughn Schill began the rally with a single, Becker and catcher Ed Conrey followed with walks and Frankie Chiou cleared the bases with his second grand slam of the season, giving his team a 4-0 lead before the first out of the game.
"We've had such a problem scoring runs, to get four [runs] in one swing of the bat was huge," Traylor said. "It got us off to a good start; we had them on their heels a little bit. They knew they were in for a tough game."
After Miami cut the lead to three with a run in the third inning, Duke's Michael Fletcher answered with a solo homer to regain a four-run lead for the Blue Devils.
Blue Devils starter Steven Cowie cruised through the first four innings and retired the first two hitters in the fifth before a furious Miami rally. A Hurricane homer, two singles and two doubles later, the game was deadlocked at 5-5.
"They're a bunch of great hitters," Traylor said. "It's hard to keep them down, [so] you just hope sometimes they hit them right at you. That's what great baseball teams do-they've got outstanding hitters up and down the lineup. It's a very deep team with no weaknesses. They steal bases at will. They've got the best bullpen I've seen in ten years at Duke."
After entering the game in the sixth, Blue Devils reliever Steve Schroeder kept Miami off the scoreboard in the sixth inning before he became plagued by wildness. The Hurricanes staged a three-run rally in the seventh on the strength of a hit and five walks, and again scored all three runs with two outs in the inning to collar Schroeder with the loss.
"That was crucial," Traylor said. "The discouraging thing was [Schroeder's] four walks-that just can't happen,"
In the series finale, Duke sent freshman Brad Dupree, a product of Miami's Westminster Christian High, to the mound for the start. Dupree, facing some of his former high school teammates, did his hometown folks proud with a strong showing. The freshman right-hander left the game in the sixth inning with his team trailing only 4-1.
"I definitely wanted Duke to win all three games this weekend just for the pride," Dupree said. "In the first inning, I had a little bit of nerves wondering how [I was] going to do, but once my pitches started to come through after the first inning, I felt like I could beat anybody out there."
Traylor replaced a tiring Dupree with Dishman and then Jimmy Wendling, two pitchers still trying to come back from injuries. The duo could not stop the bleeding, allowing the Hurricanes to blow the game wide-open with a seven-run sixth.
The Hurricanes were the third team on Duke's schedule-arguably the toughest it has played in a decade-which has been ranked in the top three in the nation at some point this season.
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