Three hits were enough for Duke to top Toledo Sunday afternoon, but the Blue Devils’ offensive struggles caught up to them Wednesday.
Duke only mustered three hits again in a close 2-1 loss against Penn State at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, squandering another impressive performance from the mound. The Nittany Lions only managed three hits themselves, but took advantage when they had runners on base to plate one more run.
“We’ve got to give good effort. We’re a team that utilizes our speed, and if we’re going to do that, we’ve got to run hard every single time and every single play,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. “We got outcompeted tonight. Penn State was the better team on the field tonight and they deserved to win the ballgame.”
The two bullpens combined to toss 11 scoreless innings, and senior Nick Hedge allowed just three runners to reach base in 4 2/3 innings of long relief to get the win for Penn State (4-7).
“Hedge pitched the ball great for them in the middle innings, really made some key pitches in key spots, executed the fastball to both sides of the plate and really kept us off-balance,“ Pollard said. “He competed and moved it around and made pitches when he had to.”
The Blue Devils (8-5) threatened in the eighth frame when freshman Zack Kone led off with a line drive into center field for a single. Hedge did not make it through the end of the inning, and exited the contest with two outs and Kone standing at second.
Senior submarine pitcher Jack Anderson replaced Hedge on the mound and immediately struggled with his control—hitting sophomore Jack Labosky in the leg and walking sophomore Ryan Day—but Jalen Phillips hit a harmless comebacker with the bases loaded to end the inning.
The closer pitched a perfect ninth to complete the four-out save.
After both starters retired the first six opposing batters of the game, the offenses briefly came alive in the third inning. The Nittany Lions stranded runners on first and second in the top half before two walks and a single by sophomore Peter Zyla loaded the bases for the Blue Devils in the bottom of the frame.
Freshman Zack Kone struck out for the first out of the inning, but sophomore Max Miller hit a shallow fly ball to right field that barely scored Evan Dougherty from third for Duke’s lone run.
Penn State closed the gap right away, rallying for its only two runs in the fourth inning off Blue Devil starter Kellen Urbon. Sophomore first baseman Jack Labosky could not handle a bad hop on a ground ball that hit his chest to lead off the inning, and the Nittany Lions took advantage of the error with a single to right field and a well-placed bunt down the third-base line to load the bases with no outs.
Sophomore Christian Heisel hit an RBI-grounder to second baseman Ryan Day to advance the runners, and freshman Jordan Bowersox drove in the second run with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in left field.
“The two runs they scored in the fourth were self-inflicted,” Pollard said. “[We] Had a chance to make a play, we didn’t execute an 0-2 pitch, didn’t communicate very well on a bunt, and that led to the runs scoring. I thought we did a good job of putting up zeroes behind that.”
Duke’s bats quickly quieted down as Hedge relieved freshman starter Eli Nabholz in the fourth inning and retired the first eight batters he faced.
Then the Blue Devils nearly created a bigger hole for themselves in the sixth frame when junior Karl Blum entered the contest in relief. Blum came on to relieve sophomore southpaw James Ziemba—who walked the leadoff hitter in the inning—but the right-hander walked both batters he faced before exiting. Sophomore Mitch Stallings pitched out of the jam without conceding a run in just his second appearance of the season, though, inducing a 5-2-3 double play with the corners of the infield in followed by a routine groundout to first.
“It was the best part of the ballgame, for Mitch to get in there and have a really positive outing going into the weekend,” Pollard said. “To come in and compete—pick a teammate up like that—we saw Mitch do that all last year. He’s coming back off some injuries in the fall, and to get him going right before we head into ACC play is big.”
Duke continued that momentum into the bottom half of the inning when Day doubled to left field with two outs, advancing Labosky to third, but freshman Griffin Conine hit a weak grounder to first to end the threat.
The Blue Devils will return to the DBAP to host No. 18 Virginia Friday at 4 p.m. to open their first series of ACC play.
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