For the first time all season, the last game of Duke's ACC series did not decide the outcome of the three-game set-which ended up being good news for the Blue Devils.
Duke rode offensive firepower from the top of the lineup and two pitching gems Friday and Saturday to a series win over Boston College (26-17, 11-11 in the ACC) this weekend at Jack Coombs Field.
The Blue Devils (29-17, 12-12) missed the opportunity for a sweep with a 7-6 loss in 11 innings Sunday, but the two wins put them closer to locking up a berth in the ACC tournament.
Duke was led at the plate by its most experienced players. Senior Nate Freiman contributed eight RBIs over the weekend and slammed home runs in all three of Duke's games, including a grand slam Sunday.
Fellow senior Matt Williams finished the weekend 9-for-14 with two home runs of his own, both in Friday's 12-2 Duke rout.
On the mound, junior Christopher Manno struck out 10 in seven innings Friday, and senior Andrew Wolcott backed up Manno's performance by throwing seven innings of two-run ball in Duke's 9-2 victory Saturday.
"It's disappointing [to lose the last game], but what I'll focus on is that we won two out of three against a very good ACC team," head coach Sean McNally said. "That's enormously positive.... Our first two games of the weekend, we played our two best games of the season, and it certainly gives us momentum heading into the stretch run."
Manno and Wolcott both worked solid outings, and Duke's offense woke up from an ACC slumber to provide the starters with plenty of run support. In the past two series, the Blue Devils squandered brilliant performances from Wolcott by only putting up two combined runs.
With Wolcott back in the Saturday rotation spot, the Blue Devils scored three runs in the fifth and five in the seventh to back him up. Sophomore shortstop Jake Lemmerman broke the Saturday contest open with a three-run homer in the seventh to give Duke an 8-2 lead.
On Friday, the game was over long before the seventh. Duke scored 11 runs in the first four innings, capped by back-to-back dingers from Williams and Freiman, and Manno cruised, striking out 10 and surrendering just four hits.
Putting runs across the board wasn't so easy Sunday, though. The Blue Devils stranded 13 runners, including four in their last three innings, and the Eagles squeaked out the win in 11 innings to avoid the sweep.
"You haven't gotten the guys in [until] you get them in," McNally said. "We had certainly many, many chances and tried a bunch of different things... but at the end of the day, you need to get big hits, and we didn't do it."
Williams and Freiman combined for almost all of the team's offense, with Williams going 5-for-5 and Freiman giving Duke a 5-4 lead midway through the game with a grand slam.
With the series win, Duke moved up a spot in the ACC standings to a tie for seventh place with the Eagles. The top eight teams in the league make the ACC tournament, which will be held in Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and the Blue Devils hold a two-game lead in the win column over Virginia Tech for the last spot. The ACC tournament appearance would be Duke's first since 1961.
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