Boston College sweeps critical series from Duke

After getting off to a promising start to their 2008 ACC schedule, the Blue Devils have hit a rut the last two weekends, dropping five consecutive games to conference rivals, including a three-game sweep at the hands of Boston College.

The Eagles (16-14, 5-10 ACC) came into the weekend series at Campanelli Stadium with just two conference wins in 12 tries and a losing record overall on the season. But Duke dropped three games to Boston College 3-2, 6-0, and 11-6. With rain Friday forcing the teams to play a double-header Saturday before completing the series with an afternoon game Sunday, Duke (21-10, 4-10) came out flat and was unable to recover.

In the first game of the double-header Saturday, the Blue Devils got off to a quick 2-0 lead and starting pitcher Andrew Wolcott kept his team in the game by allowing just three runs-one earned-in five innings. The Duke bullpen, which has been one of the Blue Devils' strengths all year added three scoreless innings, but the offense was unable to push a run across the plate as Duke went on to lose 3-2.

In the ninth inning, freshman shortstop Jake Lemmerman reached base on a one-out single and pinch runner Tom Luciano came on and stole second to put Duke a base hit away from keeping the game alive. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, though, Ryan McCurdy fouled out the catcher and junior Matt Williams' line-drive was hit directly to the Boston College center fielder.

In the evening game, sophomore starting pitcher Will Currier labored through five innings, allowing five runs on seven hits while walking a batter and failing to record a strikeout. Meanwhile, the Duke offense was shut down by Eagles starter Dan Houston, who left the game after pitching the seventh inning with a 6-0 lead. The Boston College bullpen held up and hand the Blue Devils just their second shutout loss this season.

With Duke looking to salvage the series finale Sunday afternoon and end its four-game skid, sophomore Gabriel Saade led off the game with a walk and came around the bases to score on an RBI groundout by Alex Hassan after a pair of errors on a pickoff attempt sent Saade from first to third.

The Blue Devils clung to the 1-0 lead until the third inning when freshman starting pitcher Grant Monroe got rocked for five runs. After another offensive outburst in the fifth by the Eagles made the score 8-1, Duke started to mounted a comeback, scoring a pair of runs in both the top of the sixth and seventh innings to climb within three. But that was as close as the Blue Devils would get, Duke was only able to push across a lone run in the ninth inning before falling 11-6.

Duke has a chance to snap its five-game losing streak this week when the team takes on in-state rival UNC-Greensboro (19-10) at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Greensboro. The Blue Devils resume ACC action and look to make up ground in the conference standings next weekend in a three game set in Raleigh against N.C. State (18-9, 6-6).