A day after their offense carried them to an easy victory, the Blue Devils relied on their pitching to finish off a series sweep.
Duke shut out Virginia Tech 2-0 Sunday afternoon at English Field, earning their third sweep of an ACC opponent this year. Sophomore Michael Matuella continued his impressive season and led the Blue Devils to their fifth consecutive win with 8.2 innings of four-hit ball.
“[Matuella’s] got major-league stuff and he commands it,” head coach Chris Pollard said. “He threw a lot of fastballs today and guys at times were sitting on the fastball, knew it was coming. But when it's 95-96 miles an hour and it’s got sink on it, even when you know it’s coming, it’s hard to really square it up. He’s a pretty special arm.”
Matuella (1-1) allowed just four hits and struck out seven in his outing, breezing through a Virginia Tech lineup that came into the day hitting .279 as a team. The right-hander elevated his game to another level when the Hokies threatened to score, holding Virginia Tech (18-20, 7-14) hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position.
He received all the run support he would need from designated hitter David Perkins, whose sac fly in the second inning gave Duke (24-17, 12-9 in the ACC) a 1-0 lead.
Matuella—who lowered his ERA to 1.59—appeared as if he would toss his second complete game of the season before running into a bit of trouble in the ninth. He was lifted in favor of closer Robert Huber after yielding a two-out single to second baseman Alex Perez that brought the go-ahead run to the plate. Huber came in and promptly shut the door by inducing a pop-up from right fielder Kyle Wernicki to record his seventh save of the season.
“[Matuella] was only at about 96 pitches and he was feeling good, so we decided to send him out for the ninth,” Pollard said. “We were just going to take it at-bat by at-bat. [After giving up the single to Perez] he was at 114 pitches and it was time to go to Bob [Huber]. He was angry that I took him out of the game, but I’d be disappointed if he wasn’t angry.”
Sunday’s low-scoring win came a day after the Duke offense stole the show against the Hokies Saturday. The Blue Devils cruised to a 13-3 victory thanks to eight extra-base hits and six starters who racked up multiple hits. The Duke offense had struggled earlier in the season, but now appears to be finding its groove, pushing double-digit runs across the plate in three of its last five contests.
“Our guys are starting to round into form at the plate,” Pollard said. “We’re having better and better at-bats. We’ve talked a lot about the fact that we’ve pitched well enough and played good enough defense to go on a run and that when the offense gets going, we’re very capable of rattling off a good run. We played pretty well in all three phases this weekend.”
The Blue Devils’ offensive explosion has come with one of the most important cogs in their lineup on the bench. Catcher Mike Rosenfeld—who serves as a team captain and had started each of the team’s first 37 games—has been sidelined all week with an injury, leaving a hole in the middle of the Duke lineup.
With junior Reed Anthes filling in behind the dish, the Blue Devils received contributions from players up and down the roster to make up for Rosenfeld’s missing production. Shortstop Kenny Koplove—hitting just .198 on the season—knocked in the winning run in a 3-2 extra-inning victory Friday, scoring freshman Cris Perez, who moments earlier had blasted the first triple of his career to put himself in scoring position.
“What you saw was a lot of guys around [Rosenfeld] who really answered the call,” Pollard said. “Several guys had really good weekends offensively, and that’s what you do. It’s ‘Next man up’ as the old saying goes.”
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