Duke baseball evens series with Louisville behind Istler's solid outing

Close ballgames may not be the Achilles’ heel for Duke after all.

After dropping the first of three games against No. 5 Louisville at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park 1-0 Friday night, the Blue Devils bounced back with a 2-1 win Saturday afternoon, matching the Cardinals' stellar stable of arms pitch-for-pitch in the first two games in the teams' first series as ACC foes.

Throughout the season, Duke has struggled to close out tight ball games—the loss to Louisville Friday was the Blue Devils’ fourth one-run defeat since March 29. Saturday's narrow victory ended a pair of conference streaks—Cardinals' 14-game winning tear and Duke's seven-game skid—and proved that the Blue Devils can come out on top in close matchups.

“In five of the seven [losses], we were either down a run or tied going into the ninth inning. We hadn’t gotten it done. We were right there last night. Today, we were able to get it done," Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. "That’s the confidence to know that as long as we continue to play in these games, stay consistent in what we’re doing, this will even itself out. I think guys can take a sigh of relief and go out and battle like crazy tomorrow to try to win this series.”

Throughout the first two games of the series, Duke’s pitching staff has refused to give in to the Cardinals’ high-powered offense.

In Friday’s game, senior southpaw Dillon Haviland surrendered just two hits in 5.2 scoreless innings. Prior to the outing, the McDonald, Pa., native had not pitched more than four innings in a game since 2011.

Relievers Sarkis Ohanian and Mitch Stallings followed Haviland’s lead as they continued to limit opportunities for Louisville’s batters. But the Blue Devils (22-14, 5-12 in the ACC) were equally stymied and failed to give their pitchers a lead to protect. Duke got four hits off of starter Kyle Funkhouser—who pitched seven scoreless innings—but left seven runners stranded.

The Blue Devils ultimately cracked in the seventh inning. Louisville's Brendan McKay walked and then advanced to second base on a throwing error. After Will Smith’s sacrifice bunt moved McKay to third, pinch-hitter Blake Tiberi singled to right field to score the game’s only run.

In game two, right-hander Andrew Istler led the way for the Blue Devils with another sterling performance on the mound. After a season-ending injury to junior Michael Matuella, the senior has become the weekend ace of the Duke rotation and showed why Saturday, racking up 10 strikeouts and allowing just one earned run on six hits in seven innings.

Istler burned Louisville batters with all four of his pitches. He used his fastball—which he located in and out of the strike zone—along with his cutter and slider to get ahead in the count. The Wellington, Fla., native then relied on his changeup to finish off the Cardinals (26-8, 15-2).

“I thought it was maybe the best-pitched ballgame of his career,” Pollard said. “He’s been throwing the ball great. You look back, start after start, getting us deep in the ballgame. For the past several weeks, we’ve basically just thrown him the ball and said 'See you in the seventh inning.' He knew that we needed that today and he just flat stepped up.”

Unlike the previous night, the Blue Devils capitalized on their strong pitching and scoring opportunities. Duke put pressure McKay—who took the ball for the Cardinals in the second game of the series—right out of the gates. In the first inning, senior Andy Perez roped a two-strike single through the left side. After a Max Miller walk, freshman Peter Zyla and redshirt senior Mike Rosenfeld laid down consecutive bunts to bring Perez home and stake Istler to an early 1-0 lead.

Istler’s lone earned run came in the fourth inning. Louisville left fielder Nick Solak led off the frame with an infield single and moved to second on a throwing error by Rosenfeld, and right fielder Corey Ray's RBI single tied the game.

That would be it for Louisville.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Zyla—currently on a five-game hit streak—fueled another rally when he strung a two-out single to left field. During the ensuing at-bat, Rosenfeld launched a fly ball to the outfield. Louisville’s right fielder dropped the popup after colliding with his center fielder, allowing Zyla to score the go-ahead run all the way from first.

“The play of the game to me is Pete Zyla going hard from first base on what appeared to be a routine fly ball,” Pollard said. “I don’t know how many times you see that ball go up with two outs and that runner drops his head and trots around second assuming the inning was over.”

Working for the second straight day, Stallings pitched a scoreless eighth inning and junior Kenny Koplove struck out the side in the ninth to escape a jam and put the Cardinals away.

Duke’s one-game losses are now a thing of the past. The Blue Devils will look to feed off the momentum of Saturday’s win and try to clinch a series win Sunday at 1 p.m.