Duke headed to Campbell Wednesday in search of just its fourth win away from home all season and signs of positive momentum after dropping four of five.
And after collecting their second straight tight win away from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, the Blue Devils will return home with good vibes at the plate that they must carry forward to make the NCAA tournament.
On hump day, Duke climbed back above .500 for the season with a back-and-forth 12-10 victory against the Fighting Camels at Jim Perry Stadium in Buies Creek, N.C. Despite entering the game 1-4 when facing Campbell and falling behind 9-4, the Blue Devils got two home runs from sophomore star Griffin Conine—the second of which put Duke ahead for good in the eighth inning.
Blue Devil head coach Chris Pollard's team was also steady in the field with the game on the line, committing no errors and taking advantage of three by the home team to earn a much-needed victory.
“We played really good defense. That was the difference in the ballgame,” Pollard said. “Campbell gave us a lot of free bases—four hit-by-pitches, four walks, four wild pitches, they gave us a lot—and we did a good job of limiting the free bases we gave away because we played good defense.”
The game went into the top of the eighth with Duke (18-17) still trailing by a run despite pulling within 10-9 thanks to a five-run fifth inning.
After entering the game in the fifth inning, Campbell reliever Wes Noble looked to have his team in good position for the victory by allowing just one baserunner in the sixth and seventh frames. And when he retired sophomores Chris Proctor and Jimmy Herron to start the eighth, it appeared the game would go to the final inning with the Blue Devils still trailing.
However, Noble lost his touch against the third batter of the inning, issuing a five-pitch walk to sophomore Zack Kone to set the stage for Conine, who already had notched two hits in three at-bats—including a two-run homer in the fifth inning.
Noble snuck a strike by the red-hot right fielder, but wasn’t so lucky on his second offering. Conine launched a go-ahead, two-run blast to give the Duke bullpen a lead to work with and put the Blue Devils up for good.
The Weston, Fla., native's latest outburst raised his batting average to .333 for season and extended his team-leading RBI and home run totals to 42 and 10, respectively. Wednesday marked his first multi-home run game of the season and made Conine the first Duke player to post 10 home runs in a season since 2010 barely halfway through the year.
“Its impressive. It’s fun to watch just an incredibly talented hitter,” Pollard said. “The thing that’s so impressive to me about him is he doesn’t get outside his zone. He really knows what his pitch is, doesn’t expand to try to hit, [has] great pitch recognition, lays off some tough pitches. When he gets his pitch he doesn’t miss it.”
The game did not start well for the Blue Devils, though.
Freshman Graeme Stinson’s sixth start of the season did not last long, as the streaky rookie was scorched for four runs in the first before exiting the game with Duke down 4-2 after just one inning.
Stinson entered the game with a 3.26 ERA against nonconference foes, but struggled to stay poised against the Camels, who stole three bases in the inning despite falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first.
“He did not locate an off-speed pitch for strikes, and Campbell did a good job of sitting fastball. [They] got into some hitter advantage counts, and did a good job of getting the barrel to the point of contact,” Pollard said. “They’re pretty good applying pressure with their run game. I felt like we’ve been spending too much time trying to control the run game, and not just executing the pitch.”
After both starting pitchers exited early, the teams traded punches during the next several innings. Campbell (16-17) led 9-4 entering the fifth inning after the Fighting Camels got to Duke relievers Matt Mervis and Chris McGrath in the second and fourth innings to add five more total runs.
However, the Blue Devils offense exploded for five runs in the fifth to tie the game, including two courtesy of Conine's first homer of the contest, before Duke's relievers finally settled down.
From the fifth frame onward, the game was in the hands of veterans James Ziemba, Luke Whitten and Jack Labosky, who combined to throw five innings of one-run ball, with the lone score coming on a two-out single in the sixth that made it 10-9 Campbell.
Whitten earned his first win of the season, allowing one hit in two innings of work, and Labosky closed the door on the Camels for his fourth save of the year after his team added an insurance run in the ninth following Conine's go-ahead long ball.
“Those guys threw the ball really well. [I’m] especially proud of Whitten,” Pollard said. [Whitten] did a good job of getting the shut-down inning, [he] came back out and put a zero on the board to get into the ninth—really impressive outing.”
Next up for Duke is another ACC series at home against Boston College—the Blue Devils are still looking for their second conference series win of the season and have dropped four weekend series in a row.
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