In a season that has fallen short of expectations after the Blue Devils made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 55 years last spring, Duke hit rock bottom Saturday before saving itself from a disappointing sweep Sunday.
Facing a Boston College team that entered the weekend on a 14-game ACC losing streak, the Blue Devils lost 3-1 Friday and 15-6 Saturday before rebounding for an 9-2 win at Jack Coombs Field in Durham. Duke has now lost five straight ACC series, and although it went 23-8 to end the regular season last year to play its way into the postseason, it is quickly running out of time for a similar finish this season.
"We’re equally as strong defensively as we were at this time last year. We’re a lot better on offense," Blue Devil head coach Chris Pollard said. "We’re going to have to pitch better if we’re going to go on the same type of run."
Duke (19-19, 7-11 in the ACC) squandered a solid eight-inning outing from Mitch Stallings Friday by going silent on offense, finishing the game with just one hit. After Max Miller doubled in the third inning and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Chris Proctor, Eagle pitchers Jacob Stevens and Donovan Casey shut the Blue Devils down the rest of the way.
Stallings surrendered two singles and a double in the top of the fourth to hand Boston College (12-21, 3-15) a 2-1 lead, and the Eagles tacked on another run in the fifth when shortstop Zack Kone mishandled a relay throw on a sacrifice fly for his 16th error of the season.
The Blue Devils' Saturday pitching has been unreliable all season, and Duke could not find a solution this week. Although Boston College entered the weekend with the worst offense in the conference, averaging fewer than four runs per contest, the Blue Devils' 5-1 lead quickly evaporated after a five-run fourth inning and an ugly nine-run sixth inning.
Head coach Chris Pollard elected to replace struggling freshman Adam Laskey as the Saturday starter with James Ziemba and lean on his bullpen, but five of the eight Duke pitchers that took the mound gave up at least two runs.
Luke Whitten, Nick Hendrix and Bill Chillari combined to struggle through the sixth inning, giving up three singles, two doubles, a triple and three walks as the lead rapidly ballooned.
"We need to figure out Saturday. I don’t have an answer for you right now," Pollard said. "It’s something we’ll talk about on Monday and we’ll use Wednesday’s game versus [N.C.] Central to audition some guys."
But after a long talk with Pollard following Saturday's game, the team came out more energized Sunday afternoon, with Kennie Taylor hitting a three-run double to deep right-center field in the bottom of the first to open the scoring.
"We talked a lot about the correlation between commitment and competitiveness. We talked about jumping into the deep end of the pool with both feet and not dipping your toe in the water," Pollard said. "When you do that as a player, it makes you a better competitor."
The Blue Devils added another run when Miller slapped an RBI single into center field to score Taylor and then benefitted from a questionable call in the third inning to score two more runs. Boston College first baseman Mitch Bigras appeared to catch a foul ball off the bat of Miller and drop it pulling the ball out of his glove, but the umpire ruled that he dropped the pop fly and ejected Eagle head coach Mike Gambino when he came out of the dugout to argue.
Miller got hit by a pitch later in the at-bat, and Duke scored two runs in the inning on a sacrifice fly and a balk.
Sophomore Griffin Conine hit an RBI single to keep up the offensive onslaught in the sixth inning and came around to score the Blue Devils' final run on a double from junior Jack Labosky. Conine reached base all five times he came to the plate, hitting three singles and drawing two walks to highlight an impressive weekend that included a three-run home run Saturday.
"I’m really just trying to focus on getting good pitches to hit," Conine said. "They’ve been starting to pitch around me and throw me a lot of balls and try to get me to chase."
That was more than enough offense for starting pitcher Ryan Day, who shut Boston College down for six innings before he let both batters he faced reach base in the seventh frame, leading to the Eagles' two runs. Day pitched out of jams in the second and fifth innings and enjoyed clean fielding behind him, as Duke played its first error-free game of the weekend.
"We’re all brothers here. When we fail, we fail together," Day said. "I was just hoping I could help the team, put them on my back if I can and do everything I can to scrape a win."
The strong outing came just six days after Day shut Miami out for seven innings in a win Monday, allowing just two runners to reach base.
"If he doesn’t win ACC Pitcher of the Week, it’s the biggest travesty in the history of the award because you have to combine his outing on Monday night," Pollard said. "That’s several good starts in a row that he’s given us."
At 7-11, the Blue Devils have the same conference record they did at this point last season, but the ACC is weaker and Duke has yet to play the top teams in the league. That will change next weekend when the Blue Devils visit No. 2 Louisville following their home matchup with N.C. Central.
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