Coastal Carolina offense too much for Duke baseball in tournament finale

A day after being shut out against Liberty, Duke's bats woke up for Sunday's contest—but it still wasn't enough.

The Blue Devils jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the second inning against No. 19 Coastal Carolina, but the Chanticleers responded with nine runs in four innings to claim a 10-6 victory Sunday at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway, S.C. The game marked the finale of the Baseball at the Beach tournament for Duke, which dropped its last two games after claiming a victory Friday against Ohio State.

The Blue Devils (4-3) put up a three-spot in the second inning despite rapping out just one hit in the frame. Sophomore Cris Perez got things going with a one-out walk, and freshman Zach Kone followed with a single to bring up Evan Dougherty, who slugged three homers in Friday's victory. Dougherty could not come up with the big fly this time around, but did reach base courtesy of a throwing error by Coastal Carolina third baseman Zach Remillard. The Chanticleers' poor defensive display continued throughout the inning, as a wild pitch gave the Blue Devils more opportunites to score without a hit, and led to the third of their three unearned runs.

Duke starter Brian McAfee held Coastal Carolina (4-2) in check in the bottom of the second, but the Chanticleer offense—which entered the day with a collective .354 batting average—finally broke out in the third against the right-hander. McAfee recorded two outs and nearly made it out of the inning unscathed, but a two-out, two-strike double from shortstop Michael Paez and a two-run home run from designated hitter G.K. Young tied the game up at three runs apiece.

Coastal Carolina was far from done, though, and poured on four more runs in the fifth inning to put the Blue Devils in a 6-4 hole after Duke had briefly reclaimed the lead on a sacrifice fly from Griffin Conine. Young was once again at the center of it all for the Chanticleers, delivering a two-run triple on the 12th pitch of his at-bat against McAfee.

McAfee exited after that fifth frame, finishing with a final line of seven earned runs and nine hits allowed with three strikeouts. Duke head coach Chris Pollard turned to his bullpen for the final four innings, but Karl Blum suffered from bouts of wildness in the sixth, allowing Coastal Carolina to score two runs without a hit thanks to two walks, a wild pitch and a hit batter.

Duke fought back in the seventh with two more runs but would not come any closer than that. Reliever Bobby Holmes shut the door for the Chanticleers, earning the save with 2 2/3 innings of scoreless work out of the pen.

The Blue Devils have just one day to rest before getting back on the field. Duke plays a pair of midweek games this week, hosting Davidson Tuesday before facing Campbell on the road Wednesday. The Blue Devils blanked the Fighting Camels 4-0 last week.