With the Blue Devils clinging to a one-run lead in the sixth inning and the heart of the order due up to the plate, senior Jonathan Anderson led off with a perfect bunt down the third-base line.
Jimmy Gallagher and clean-up hitter Nate Freiman then blasted back-to-back home runs to give Duke (7-0) a commanding 4-0 lead. From there, the Blue Devils cruised to a 7-1 victory over Albany (0-1) in Tuesday's afternoon contest at Jack Coombs Field.
"Jon is a great bunter, and he made an excellent choice there," Duke head coach Sean McNally said. "With the wind blowing out and Jimmy and Nate coming up, I felt like good things were going to happen."
The Duke offense struggled a bit in the early going. After scoring 10 runs or more in five of their first six games, the Blue Devils failed to advance a runner into scoring position until the fourth inning. Fortunately for Duke, however, freshman Alexander Hassan's first career start went about as well as possible.
The right-hander retired the first six Great Danes he faced and went on to complete five scoreless frames to earn his second win of the season.
"Alex did a great job," McNally said. "He was really confident and really in control, and that's saying a lot for a freshman. I was extremely pleased with his effort out there today."
After sailing through the first two frames, Hassan got into trouble in the third. The freshman walked the lead-off batter, then induced a ground ball that could have led to a double play. The ball, however, took a bad hop that led to an error by shortstop Gabriel Saade.
With runners at first and second and no outs, the right-hander whipped off curveball after vicious curveball to fan two Great Danes and get one other to hit a harmless fly ball to center field.
"I wasn't really nervous," Hassan said. "I knew that if I threw pitches for strikes, I'd be okay. This was the first time I got extended out on the mound, and I really got a good feel for all my pitches and was able to mix in some curves to get big outs."
Trouble followed again in the fourth inning after the freshman walked the lead-off man for the second time in a row, then gave up his first hit of the afternoon to the third batter to put men on first and second with one away.
Hassan showed great poise again and got out of the jam, this time by inducing a ground ball to third baseman Brett Bartles. Bartles stepped on the bag for the first out and fired across the diamond to complete the inning-ending double play.
"It's going to be key for us all season if we continue to play good defense and throw strikes," McNally said. "The offense will come and go, and when it wasn't working today, Alex and the defense really kept us in the game."
Duke will take its perfect record to Greenville, N.C., this weekend where it will take on tougher competition than it has faced thus far with one game against each Washington, St. John's and East Carolina.
"We feel we can play with anybody in the country," Gallagher said. "This will be a really good test for us this weekend."
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