Somewhere out there is an explanation. Theories abound. A popular one is that somehow the University has cut a deal with George Steinbrenner allowing Duke (13-26, 3-9 in the ACC) to periodically borrow the New York Yankees.
Whatever the reason, the baseball team that played the first two games of the weekend series against the Virginia Cavaliers (17-19-1, 5-7) did not look like the one that wrapped up the series Sunday at historic Jack Coombs Field.
The Blue Devils rebounded from two straight poundings to hammer Virginia 10-1 in the final game.
The weekend left Duke head coach Bill Hillier with mixed feelings.
"I think we ended the weekend very well," he said. "But I'm not pleased with the way we played Friday and Saturday."
Not pleased might be a bit of an understatement. The series opened poorly on Friday, and went downhill Saturday.
The Blue Devils actually led briefly in the opener. J.D. Alleva's two-run double in the fourth put Duke ahead 3-2. But the lead would not hold.
The Cavaliers scored five runs in the fifth on their way to an easy 10-4 victory.
Then came Saturday. The Blue Devils again drew first blood, scoring a run in the third. But then UVa went on an offensive tear.
The Cavaliers scored four runs in the fourth and three in the sixth. Any chance of a Duke comeback ended when UVa scored four more in the eighth on two blasts over the 400 foot sign in dead centerfield. The Cavaliers finished with a 12-3 victory.
Despite the two losses, Hillier did not get down on his team.
"In a game like Saturday there is no reason to be critical," he said. "Because if they are competitive at all, and they are, they're going to feel bad. You play so much that after a game like Saturday, you can't be negative. I just told them to get a good night's sleep, and come back and compete your tails off."
Hillier's strategy paid off.
On Sunday afternoon the Blue Devils did not do much, if anything, wrong.
Duke got on the board early, scoring three first inning runs on a Wes Goodner sacrifice fly, and a two-run single from Matt Lynch.
Hillier said the early lead was a key factor in the game.
"Their pitcher didn't throw well to open the game," he said. "That sets the tempo for the whole game. When you get them down early you can be a lot more aggressive pitching and on the bases."
The aggression on the bases paid huge dividends as the Blue Devils swiped four bases en route to scoring 10 runs on the day.
The run total is impressive, but the credit for Sunday's victory belongs on the shoulders of Ryan Caradonna, who had perhaps the finest pitching performance of the season for Duke.
Caradonna went all nine innings, striking out five and allowing only one base-on-balls and one run in earning the victory.
"Ryan Caradonna pitched awesome today," said Hillier. "I think he had his best pitching performance of the season. I hate to say it was better than the way he pitched at Georgia Tech, but he could have had a shutout today. He also did a better job of pitching ahead in the count, and he had better command of all three pitches."
Following the win, Hillier expressed confidence that his team can still pull itself out of eighth place in the ACC. His goal, from the start of the year, was to be No. 7 in the conference, and the first-year coach believes that's still an attainable goal.
"We're halfway through our conference right now and we're sitting at 3-9," he said. "We have 12 games to play; we have N.C. State, Clemson, North Carolina and then Maryland. We need to get to that eight- or nine-win level to stay out of the play-in game. We can do that, and if we play the way we did today we can win some games in the tournament."
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