The baseball team's series against Mount St. Mary's this weekend may not have been pretty, but with Jeff Becker joining the growing list of star players injured, the Blue Devils will take wins however they can.
The Blue Devils (6-5) trounced the Mountaineers (1-2) 10-4 Saturday and split a Sunday doubleheader, losing the first game 9-5 but bouncing back to take the second, 9-4.
"We really didn't swing the bats very well, and our pitching was really not as good as it's been, so considering the way we swung the bats and considering our pitching, we're happy to get out of here with two wins in the series," coach Steve Traylor said.
Duke feels its second win this weekend was due more to Mount St. Mary's errors than its own play. In fact, the Blue Devils scored four runs in yesterday's second game off Mountaineer miscues.
"We got four runs we didn't deserve, and we really needed that," Traylor said. "The way we scored runs was their mistakes. That five-run inning we had the first day was kind of attributable to their errors, and today too."
Mired in a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the third yesterday, third baseman Kevin Kelly stepped up to the plate with right fielder David Mason on second base. Kelly hit a ground ball toward Mountaineer shortstop Michael Freundel, but first baseman Brian Thomas missed Freundel's throw and Mason crossed home plate.
The Mountaineers reclaimed the lead in the next inning, but the Blue Devils overtook them for good when John Benik and Vaughn Schill both scored on a wild pitch.
Ryan Caradonna took home the win in that game, and Teddy Sullivan closed out both of Duke's victories, pitching 3.1 innings without allowing a run. Caradonna had four RBIs and two hits in both of those games.
In Duke's sole loss, Mt. St. Mary's jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the third, with Thomas and Wayne Crowley driving in two RBIs apiece. That initial deficit was too much for the Blue Devils to overcome.
"This isn't a team I'm anxious to have get behind early, because we're not a power-hitting team," Traylor said. "We're not a team that I think is going to be having a lot of big innings. I feel like we're going to have to manufacture runs a lot."
Saturday's game was almost the mirror image of yesterday's first, with Duke jumping out to the early lead, driving in five runs in the first inning. In addition to Caradonna, Mason, Kelly and leftfielder Gideon Thompson collected two hits each. Winning pitcher Chris Capuano allowed only one run and one hit in seven innings.
Not everything that happened Saturday was good for Duke, however. Becker, a third baseman, went down in the middle of the game with a broken foot and will be out for eight weeks. Kelly, who spent the beginning of the season at first base, moved over to third, and Benik filled in on first.
Pitcher Brent Reid and catcher J.D. Alleva, two of Duke's premier players, are also out with injuries. Slated to start at catcher, Alleva is out for the season with torn ligaments in his hand. Reid, second in the pitching rotation, has scar tissue in his bicep and is expected to return next month. With its roster depleted, the Blue Devils have had a lot of adjusting to do.
"It's a little bit like starting over... our lineup seems to change about daily," Traylor said. "It's disruptive; I think that's probably the best way to put it. It can be a little emotionally draining at times. I think it took the wind out of our sails."
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