Trailing by two, Duke answered with four runs in the third inning and exploded for six more in the fourth to do more than just claw past the Lions.
The Blue Devils completed a two-game sweep of Columbia with a commanding 16-4 victory at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park Wednesday night. Southpaw Dillon Haviland recorded the win, freshman Harrisen Egly suffered the loss and first baseman Jalen Phillips smashed two home runs to right field after a “heart-to-heart” with head coach Chris Pollard before the game.
“[I’m] really, really impressed by the ballgame he played,” Pollard said of Phillips. “After we made some mistakes early, we looked a little bit sluggish, and then we really came out in the third… and had a big answer.”
After a scoreless first frame, Columbia (3-9) pounced on new pitcher Luke Whitten and the supporting cast behind him. Joey Falcone kicked things off with a double. Then with one out, John Kinne grounded a ball to shortstop Kenny Koplove, who overthrew Phillips at first. The error allowed Kinne to take second and Falcone to score to give the Lions an early 1-0 lead.
Whitten would escape the jam after a backhand snag from third baseman Max Miller and a nice spinning throw of his own, but with Columbia up 1-0, the damage was done.
“I was impressed by what I thought was a good job on [Whitten’s] part of pitching through some of the mistakes that we made behind him,” Pollard said. “Luke’s throwing the ball well for us.”
Duke (16-5) evened the game in the bottom of the second when left fielder Michael Smiciklas—who reached base on a hit-by-pitch—scored on a Koplove two-out double.
In the top of the third, the Lions opened up a 3-1 lead after Phillips mishandled a pick-off throw.
But once again, Duke would battle back. In the bottom of the third, the Blue Devils cut the Columbia lead in half without swinging the bat, using four walks to plate another run.
With the score 3-2 and the ducks still on the pond, right fielder Peter Zyla stayed patient at the plate, fouling off pitch after pitch until he got the 3-2 pitch he was waiting for. The Alpharetta, Ga., native sent the ball deep into the night and past right fielder Gus Craig for a three-run triple. Delivering a Tiger Woods-esque fist pump in excitement, Zyla had given the Blue Devils the spark they had been waiting for.
“That game is a coin-flip right there, it could go either way, they’ve got some momentum,” Pollard said on the context of the triple. “I thought that was one of the better at-bats of the year.”
After Haviland retired the side on just seven pitches—keeping the momentum with the Duke offense—the Blue Devils opened the bottom of the fourth in style. Without recording an out, Phillips homered to right, Andy Perez tripled to right center and the Blue Devils recorded a walk and back-to-back-to-back RBI singles. In the blink of an eye, Duke had gone from trailing 3-1 to winning 9-3, and the hosts would end the six-run frame ahead 11-3.
After James Ziemba worked out of trouble in the seventh by striking out the side andPhillips launched another home run to right in the eighth, the Blue Devils emerged victorious 16-4 for the second night in a row in downtown Durham.
“Now we’ve been down here for two days, [and] we’ve got a level of comfort,” Pollard said. “We’re excited to keep going this weekend.”
Duke continues its homestand this weekend with a three-game series against Pittsburgh at the DBAP.
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