Struggles with runners in scoring position haunt Duke baseball in ACC tournament play-in game loss to Wake Forest

Duke made an impressive late-season run to qualify for the ACC tournament, but its stay at the event did not last long. 

10th-seeded Wake Forest eliminated the seventh-seeded Blue Devils in the first play-in game of the tournament 4-3 Tuesday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park behind strong performances from starting pitcher Parker Dunshee and top reliever Will Craig. The two hurlers completed all nine innings and combined for 13 strikeouts, making timely pitches to escape jams in nearly every frame.

Duke outhit the Demon Deacons 13-5, but was just 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 12 runners on base.

“We played really, really good baseball over the second half of the season, and I thought we did it again today,” Blue Devil head coach Chris Pollard said. “We just had a couple of opportunities with runners in scoring position where we didn’t deliver, and that’s baseball.”

Duke (33-22) had several opportunities to tie the game after Wake Forest centerfielder Stuart Fairchild hit a two-run home run in the first inning, but some of its best came in the final two frames.

With the Blue Devils trailing 4-3, freshman Zack Kone smacked a leadoff double to lead off the eighth inning and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt. But sophomore Max Miller swung and missed at all three pitches he saw from Craig to strike out, and leadoff hitter Jimmy Herron lined out to end the threat.

Wake Forest (33-23) went down quietly in the top of the ninth, and Craig walked freshman Chris Proctor to start the bottom half of the frame and bring sophomore Jack Labosky—the Blue Devils' home run leader with eight—to the plate. But Labosky picked up his second strike fouling off a sacrifice bunt attempt and struck out looking on a curveball to end an eight-pitch at-bat.

“I don’t know that Will Craig threw a breaking ball for a strike other than that 3-2 pitch,” Pollard said. “For him to be able to execute a 3-2 breaking ball in that spot knowing that if he doesn’t execute it, the winning run is at first base, that takes a lot of guts.”

After sophomore Justin Bellinger grounded into a fielder's choice, a two-out single by sophomore Peter Zyla—his third hit of the day—advanced pinch-runner Kennie Taylor to third. But with the tying run 90 feet away for the second straight inning, Craig struck out pinch-hitter Michael Smiciklas to complete a seven-out save.

After Duke starter Kellen Urbon hit a batter and allowed Fairchild's home run to start the game, the Blue Devils got a run back in the second frame when Zyla led off with a single, stole second and advanced to third with one out on a Dunshee throwing error. Kone then struck out, but sophomore Evan Dougherty lined a two-out RBI single to left field to cut the deficit in half.

Miller extended the inning with a single up the middle, but Herron struck out to strand two runners.

Wake Forest answered right back with a run in the third inning after junior Jonathan Pryor reached base with a leadoff single and advanced to second on a balk. Pryor tagged up and sped to third on a shallow fly to right field—seeming to catch Zyla off guard after he recorded the out—then scored on a sacrifice fly by Nate Mondou.

“If you look at the run in the third inning, that’s one we’d like to have back,” Pollard said. “It was an 0-2 hit, and then we balked him to second base, so we gave away the free base there, and then we got on our heels a little bit on the tag on really a ball that he shouldn’t have been able to tag on.”

Duke again had a chance to rally in the bottom of the third with two runners on and one out, but Zyla grounded into a fielder’s choice and junior Cris Perez struck out with runners on the corners to end the inning.

The Blue Devils threatened to chip away at the lead again in the fifth inning, when Herron walked on four pitches and Proctor singled to bring the heart of the order to the plate with no outs. But Labosky struck out before Bellinger hit a soft liner back to Dunshee, who made the catch and doubled Proctor off first base.

The Demon Deacons tacked on an insurance run in the sixth to stretch their lead to 4-1, which proved to be critical when Duke scored two runs in the seventh inning. Labosky smacked an RBI double—the Blue Devils’ first extra-base hit—to score Herron in the seventh, forcing Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter to replace Dunshee with Craig to face Bellinger.

The 6-foot-6 cleanup hitter plated Labosky with a single and Zyla singled to move the tying run into scoring position, but Perez left both runners on base with a flyout to right field.

Duke will now have to wait until Monday at noon for the 64-team NCAA tournament field to be revealed. The Blue Devils entered the week ranked No. 23 in RPI and are projected to make the tournament for the first time since 1961, but could have helped themselves further with a win Tuesday to earn three more games in ACC tournament pool play.

“If you really take a deep dive into the numbers, we’ve played as well as anybody in the country over the second half of the season,” Pollard said. “We absolutely have earned the right to go and keep playing baseball.”