Playing their 10th contest in just 12 days, the Blue Devils rounded out a tiring stretch of competition with another win.
Duke bested Princeton 7-1 Wednesday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field in the Blue Devils’ 11th-straight home tilt.
An impressive performance from the mound and two productive innings at the plate gave Duke the necessary ingredients for a victory—its seventh of the 10-game stretch and fifth in a row.
“Today was a very solid performance,” head coach Chris Pollard said. “I thought we played great defense…. We did a good job of picking guys up when we had guys in scoring position in the fourth and fifth innings.”
The game remained scoreless through three innings despite the Tigers (3-8) notching two quick hits in the first inning. Duke (14-8) managed a hit of its own in the second but left two runners on base.
Excitement mounted in the fourth frame as Duke avoided a Princeton score after the Tigers stranded Danny Hoy—who went 4-for-4 on the day—on third thanks to two infield groundouts and a strikeout.
Leading off with a line drive down the left field line in the bottom half, Duke senior Jordan Betts notched his 11th double of the season. Designated hitter Matt Berezo stepped up next and dropped down a sacrifice bunt to bring Betts home. After Princeton’s first baseman fumbled the toss, Berezo made it to first while Betts scored to put the Blue Devils up 1-0.
After being hit by a pitch in his first at bat, outfielder Ryan Deitrich hit a shot over the left field fence to knock in Berezo and give the redshirt senior his first home run as a Blue Devil. A transfer from Pennsylvania, Deitrich had the most experience facing Princeton—the two Ivy League teams faced off throughout Deitrich’s career with the Quakers, while Duke hasn’t competed against the Tigers since 2004.
“It feels really good, not only to have my first home run of the season, but to [have it] come against Princeton, who I’ve played against for the past four years, it was kind of sweet to get it against them—especially after the first at bat,” Deitrich said. “I don’t really think they were throwing it at me intentionally… [but] I kind of took it personally in my next at bat and made them pay for it.”
With a 3-0 lead to protect, redshirt sophomore Conner Stevens took to the mound and promptly retired the first two batters with back-to-back strikeouts. A fly out to left field ended the inning and sent the trailing Tigers back onto the field.
A leadoff double from redshirt junior Mike Rosenfeld put a Blue Devil in scoring position. Then Betts, returning to the plate, connected on a hit to left field and pushed Rosenfeld to take third. Berezo tried to bunt again, leaving one foul and missing the ball on the other. Changing his approach, the senior drove the ball into the left-center field gap, scoring Rosenfeld for Duke’s fourth run of the afternoon.
“We had too much lazy fly ball contact [early], but we made adjustments as the game went on,” Pollard said. “We took some good swings late in the game.”
Duke’s 5-6-7 hitters again came up big, with Deitrich knocking in Betts and sending Berezo to third when his line drive found a hole between the third baseman and shortstop, prompting a visit to the mound from Princeton head coach Scott Bradley. Without a pitching change, the Tigers gave up two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to give Duke a 7-0 lead.
On the defensive side, nine different Duke pitchers took the mound to hold Princeton to just one run on the afternoon. The Blue Devil pitchers combined for 12 strikeouts, allowing just six hits and three walks. Only freshman J.R. Holloway and junior Sarkis Ohanian pitched multiple innings, with Holloway retiring all three Tigers in the top of the third for a perfect inning.
“We went into it knowing we were going to use a lot of pitchers to get guys ready for the weekend. They stepped up,” Pollard said. “We know we’ve put a strain on our pitching staff, and we know even more important than today is having guys ready for the weekend.”
The Blue Devils will take to the road to face ACC foe Pittsburgh in a three-game series Friday, Saturday and Sunday, hoping to continue their five-game win streak.
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