Van Orden outduels Rodon as Duke baseball shuts out N.C. State

Facing one of the top pitching prospects in the country, it was the Blue Devils' ace who reigned supreme.

Duke shut out No. 25 N.C. State 2-0 Friday night at Durham Bulls Athletic Park behind the right arm of senior Drew Van Orden. The Wolfpack sent ace Carlos Rodon—who is expected to be chosen with one of the first picks in the upcoming MLB draft—to the mound, but it was Van Orden who emerged victorious. In a matchup that featured a combined 23 strikeouts from the starting pitchers, Van Orden outdueled Rodon to the tune of eight shutout innings, surrendering just three hits and racking up 11 strikeouts.

“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 and I couldn’t wait to get on the mound today.”

The Blue Devils (19-16, 8-8 in the ACC) jumped on the board quickly against N.C. State (19-14, 8-8), taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on senior David Perkins’ first home run of the year. Perkins—who plays almost exclusively against left-handers as part of a platoon with fellow senior Matt Berezo—blasted a 1-2 fastball over the 400-foot sign in straightaway center field for just the second homer Rodon (2-6) has allowed in 63 innings this season.

Those two runs would prove to be all that Van Orden (3-3) would need. The senior right-hander turned in perhaps his best performance of the year, cruising through eight shutout innings and allowing just four runners to reach base. Van Orden was very aggressive in the strike zone and constantly ahead in the count against the N.C. State hitters, allowing him to utilize his slider to neutralize a potent Wolfpack lineup that boasted four starters batting higher than .300.

“[His slider] was really explosive,” head coach Chris Pollard said. “It was clear by some of the swings that they took that they didn’t recognize it out of the hand. It’s one thing to say ‘Ok, I see that pitch’ and not be able to hit it. It’s another thing to see it out of the hand as a fastball and then have it explode on you late. He threw some really good ones.”

N.C. State’s best threat to score came in the third inning, when Duke left fielder Ryan Deitrich misplayed a fly ball off the bat of Nathan Hood that allowed Hood to reach second. Van Orden then gave up a single to right fielder Garrett Suggs, putting runners on the corners with nobody out and the top of the Wolfpack order coming to the plate. Deitrich redeemed himself on shortstop Trea Turner’s fly ball, firing a strike to home plate that nailed Hood—who was tagging up from third—and eliminated the scoring threat.

“[That throw] was big,” Pollard said. “Obviously, he does a bad job on the ball [earlier in the inning]. Rather than drop his head or feel sorry for himself, he does a great job of atoning for it later in the inning. That wound up being a huge play in the ballgame.”

For Rodon, it was another hard-luck loss in a season where he has had almost no run support. The Wolfpack has scored one run or fewer in seven of his nine starts on the year, leaving him four games under .500 despite owning a 2.44 ERA entering the night.

Rodon—noted for his hard-breaking slider and a fastball that sits in the low 90s—seemed to settle into a groove as the game wore on. He yielded just one hit after the third inning, prompting N.C. State head coach Elliot Avent to characterize the later innings as “probably the best he’s thrown all year”. The 6-foot-3 left-hander had no problem living up to his reputation as a workhorse, tossing a season-high 134 pitches in 7.2 innings, tying a season-high with 12 punch outs.

“[Rodon] is going to get his swings and misses,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. “When the slider is down and it comes out in the fastball plane, you just can’t recognize it. He’s going to produce a lot of swings and misses, but I thought we were very good in our approach against the fastball.”

Things got a little dicey for the Blue Devils in the ninth inning, when Pollard decided to pull Van Orden after 110 pitches and insert closer Robert Huber. Huber proceeded to hit the first batter he faced—thus bringing the tying run to the plate with nobody out—but settled down to retire the next three batters and earn his sixth save of the season.

“I was really confident with Huber coming in because he’s been awesome,” Van Orden said. “I’m not going to lie, I got a little nervous [after he hit the leadoff man], but he always finds a way to make it really interesting in the ninth and make us all a little nervous, but he finds a way out of it. He does his job.”