Baseball loses by combined 31 runs in 4 games to ASU

Competing in Tempe, Ariz. over the past three days, the Duke baseball team dropped four straight games to fifth-ranked Arizona State, a perennial national powerhouse and a team that has its sights set on Omaha for the College World Series. The Blue Devils were outscored by a total of 40-9 and gave up 63 hits during the weekend.

Duke certainly knew it would be facing a baseball colossus in the Sun Devils, who also swept the Blue Devils in Jack Coombs Stadium last season. And even though many of his team's weaknesses were exposed, coach Bill Hillier nonetheless believes that playing Arizona State will prove to be a helpful growing experience for his young team.

"They're definitely one of the top teams in the country," Hillier said. "I'm sure they feel they can end up their season in Omaha. I told my guys that I don't want them to get discouraged. It's good for our program to come out here and compete against these guys."

In the second inning of Friday's contest, the first of the series, the defending Pac-10 champions unloaded on the Blue Devils for five runs en route to a runaway 8-1 victory to start the series.

This supremacy continued into Saturday, when the Sun Devils bombarded Blue Devil pitcher Kevin Thompson with seven runs in the bottom half of the fourth inning, securing an 8-0 lead only halfway through the contest. From that point on, though, the Blue Devils outscored their hosts 5-4, highlighted by a Scott Grossi single that scored sophomore Doug Bechtold in the top of the fifth inning and a double to right-centerfield by J.D. Alleva that brought home Grossi and senior David Mason. Minutes later, first baseman Larry Broadway singled home Alleva to cut the Sun Devils lead to 10-5, and Duke only surrendered two more runs to fall 12-5.

However, the Blue Devils' offensive output that showed signs of life in Saturday's first game could not be sustained into the second game of the doubleheader. Surrendering only three Duke hits during the matchup, the Sun Devils plastered their visitors with nine unanswered runs on 14 hits. Needless to say, it was a tough outing for Duke freshman starter Greg Burke, who looked impressive during his inaugural relief action against Elon last weekend but relinquished 11 hits to Arizona State Saturday.

In the final game of the series, the Sun Devils once again amassed a double-digit run total, handily disposing of Duke 11-3. The loss was disappointing for the Blue Devils, who actually hung tough early when Broadway hit a solo home run to rightfield to reduce Arizona State's lead to 3-1. However, the Sun Devils continued their hot hitting by scoring runs in four consecutive innings, ending Duke's chances for final-game heroics and a major upset.

Despite Duke's lack of success over the weekend, Hillier seemed pleased with his team's overall performance and realized that the Blue Devils were vastly overmatched.