Winter weather may have delayed Opening Day, but the snow could not stop Duke from picking up its first series win of the season.
The Blue Devils swept their season-opening doubleheader Saturday at Jack Coombs Field by defeating Binghamton 7-3 and 5-1. Duke went for the sweep Sunday, but a late rally attempt fell short as Binghamton earned its first victory of the season with a 7-6 win.
“Well I’d be lying if I didn’t say we were disappointed, but I tip my hat to Binghamton,” head coach Chris Pollard said after Sunday's loss. “I thought there were moments where we did some really good things and I thought we fought our way back into the game twice and gave ourselves a chance. It just came up a little bit short.”
Although the Blue Devils (2-1) dropped the series finale on Sunday, they played well during the doubleheader on Saturday both on the mound and at the plate. Through the combined efforts of junior pitcher Trent Swart—the first game’s starter—and sophomore pitcher Michael Matuella—the second game’s starter—and various relief pitchers, Duke surrendered just two earned runs and struck out 24 batters as it swept the Bearcats (1-2) in the doubleheader.
“I thought Swart threw the ball great yesterday,” Pollard said. “Matuella was really dominant. I thought [Sunday’s starter, James Marvel] did some things well. There’s certainly some things that we’ll look at this week that I think that we can address going into his start next Sunday.”
Duke also swung the bat well this weekend, particularly senior third baseman Jordan Betts. Betts batted .500 for the weekend and was especially hot during the first game on Saturday where he matched career highs in hits in a game with three and RBIs in a game with four.
“I felt good,” Betts said. “Obviously, it’s the start of the year and you want to get off on the right foot. Fortunately enough for me yesterday I was able to have a big day. Pretty good swing on the ball in my first at bat and had a couple walks…. I would like to have done a little more there at the end to help us get a win [on Sunday] but overall pretty pleased.”
Betts was not the only Blue Devil to have a good weekend at the plate. Sophomore shortstop Kenny Koplove went 5-for-12 at the plate on the weekend and drove in three runs. Redshirt junior catcher Mike Rosenfeld drove in a pair of runs and scored twice this weekend.
“It’s great to go out and take a series,” Rosenfeld said. “We really wanted to come out and sweep, though, so it is a little disappointing. I love the way our team fought back, though, in this game. Our pitchers held us close. Got off to a rough start but really a lot of positive things to take out of this game.”
The Blue Devils will look to rebound from the loss in the final game of the series and maintain the momentum they built over the weekend when they visit UNC-Greensboro on Tuesday. Duke crushed the Spartans in both matchups they had last year, defeating them 17-2 at home and then 12-2 on the road.
With the season still young, Rosenfeld echoed his coach's sentiment that there is still plenty of room for improvement.
“Getting ahead of batters,” Rosenfeld said. “Our pitching has been great, but we could do a better job of starting ahead of them…. Scoring early is obviously key [too]. We did a better job of that in the first two games, not so much in the third game. If we do those two things I think we’ll be really successful.”
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