Slider fuels Van Orden's masterpiece against N.C. State

Duke and N.C. State hitters went to sleep Friday night with nightmares about the slider—a devastating pitch that looks like a fastball coming out of the pitcher's hand, only to break hard and away from the batter at the last second.

Friday's series-opener between the Wolfpack and the Blue Devils featured 25 combined strikeouts between the two sides, mostly due to wicked sliders tossed by the starting pitchers—Duke's Drew Van Orden and N.C. State's Carlos Rodon.

"That was the old slider. I think [Rodon] had been throwing more cutters lately. Tonight, his slider was unhittable," Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent said. "It's not going to be hit."

Rodon—who is regarded as a surefire first-round pick in June's MLB draft and could be selected No. 1 overall—scattered six hits and just one earned run in 7.2 innings Friday night and also tallied 12 strikeouts.

But Van Orden stole the spotlight.

The senior right-hander tossed one of the best games of his career in front of a slew of MLB scouts who traveled to Durham to see Rodon. Duke's 2-0 win was Van Orden's third win of the season and snapped a six-game Blue Devil losing streak against the Wolfpack.

"It just made it more exciting, knowing that I'm going against a first-rounder on the other team," Van Orden said. "It just made me really want to get out there. I couldn't wait to get on the mound today, and I wanted to stay on the mound as long as possible."

Van Orden gave up just three hits in eight innings of work and allowed only one walk. It took the senior 110 pitches to record 24 outs—11 of them strikeouts.

The senior commanded the strike zone and rarely fell behind in the count. But it was his laser-beam of a slider that left Wolfpack hitters looking silly at the plate all night.

"It was clear by some of the swings [N.C. State] took that they didn't recognize it out of the hand," Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. "It's one thing to be able to see that pitch and not hit it. It's another thing to see it out of the hand as a fastball and then have it explode on you late."

It didn't look like Van Orden was on his way to a big game after N.C. State's leadoff hitter drilled a hard ground ball down the left field line and cruised into second with a double to start the first inning. But Van Orden got a quick pop-up and then fanned two batters to escape the scoring threat in the top of the first.

After N.C. State went down in order in the second inning, the Wolfpack again looked poised to score in the third after a single and an error put runners on the corners with no one out. But Van Orden, thanks in large part to a great throw from left fielder Ryan Deitrich, pitched his way out of the jam without letting a runner cross the plate.

That was as close as N.C. State would get for the rest of the game.

Van Orden gave up a hit in the fourth and a walk in the fifth but tallied three more punchouts. In the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, the right-hander sat down all nine batters he faced, recording three more strikeouts and allowing just one ball to leave the infield.

"Every time he stepped up it was strike one," Avent said. "He threw a lot of fastballs away that we took for strikes. And when it got to two strikes, that slider is pretty good."

Van Orden felt strong enough to go back out in the ninth and tried to convince Pollard to leave him on the mound.

"I came down and Coach Pollard told me that was it, and I kind of gave him a weird look and tried to stay in," Van Orden said.

But the Blue Devil coaching staff looked at his high pitch count and opted to go with closer Robert Huber to finish off Van Orden's gem.

In college baseball, Friday nights are when teams trot out their aces. Rodon is not only one of the best pitchers Duke will face all season but also one of the best in the country. For Van Orden, who thought about trying his luck in the MLB Draft after his junior season, the idea of going toe-to-toe against the ACC's best pitchers on Friday nights brought him back for his senior year.

"I remind him on Thursdays, when he gets in these big games, that this is why he passed on professional baseball—to get a chance to come back and go head-to-head with arguably the best pitcher in college baseball," Pollard said. "He wanted that opportunity, and that's why he decided to come back."