In its first series of the 2005 season, the baseball team (1-1) split a pair of games with North Carolina A&T (1-1) at Jack Coombs Field this weekend.
Following a 2-0 victory Saturday, the Blue Devils went on to drop their Sunday contest with the Aggies, 4-1.
“I expected to come out of this weekend 2-0,” head coach Bill Hillier said. “I’m unhappy with a 1-1 split against N. C. A&T. It’s a good program over there, but it’s not an ACC-type team. In order for us to do what we want to do, we have to put teams like that away.”
Miscues proved the deciding factor in Sunday’s game. The contest was scoreless until the top of the fourth inning, when Duke committed three errors, forfeiting three unearned runs to N.C. A&T.
After a Chris Williams lead-off single, the Aggies’ Jeremy Jones reached base on a fielder’s choice. Duke second baseman Adam Murray tagged Williams out, but the subsequent batter, Charlie Gamble, reached base on an error by shortstop Brett Bartles. Joe McIntyre then hit a short chopper to pitcher Danny Otero, but Bartles dropped Otero’s throw, allowing Jones to score, Gamble to advance to third and McIntyre to reach second.
Third baseman Kyle Kreick committed the final error of the inning by overthrowing first baseman Bryan Smith on a Patrick Oats grounder. Gamble scored on the misguided hurl, and Leighton Walcott grounded out to short to drive McIntyre across the plate for N.C. A&T.
“I’m not going to single out those two freshmen who made those three errors and say they lost the game for us. They didn’t,” Hillier said of Bartles and Kreick. “There were a lot of times at the plate that people didn’t drive runs in, too.”
The Blue Devils’ offensive production was lackluster all weekend, especially with runners in scoring position. In Sunday’s game, Duke stranded 10 baserunners and drove in no runs. The Blue Devils’ only score came off a wild pitch thrown by the Aggies’ Clint Summers in the eighth inning.
“We were very confident in our bats coming into this weekend, and for whatever reason we just didn’t get them going,” Murray said. “It’s a shame because we wasted good outings from our pitching staff both days,”
Duke pitchers combined to allow only one earned run in 18 innings. Greg Burke earned Saturday’s win with six strikeouts in five innings, and David Torcise was credited with the save. Though he was the losing pitcher, Otero threw four strikeouts and no walks in four innings Sunday. Hillier said he plans to start both Burke and Otero in the team’s next series.
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