With the tying run 90 feet away, Virginia's Ernie Clement hit a harmless chopper to shortstop Zack Kone, who fired the throw on target to first baseman Jalen Phillips.
The graduate student squeezed the ball for the final out, yelled in celebration and pumped his fist—he has at least one more college baseball game to play.
No. 9 seed Duke became the Cinderella of the ACC tournament Thursday afternoon, upsetting the fourth-seeded Cavaliers 4-3 at Louisville Slugger Field in Louisville, Ky. In a pool with two ranked opponents, the Blue Devils went 2-0 to advance to Saturday's semifinals.
"I’m proud because the team you’ve seen out on the field on Tuesday and Thursday was not the team that played the first 15 or 20 games of the season," Duke head coach Chris Pollard said in the postgame press conference. "For our guys to stay together, to stay committed to the program, to stay committed to each other and really work to be playing their best baseball at the end of the year, I think speaks a lot about the culture that’s in that locker room and the leadership that’s in that locker room."
Pollard's squad trailed by one midway through the game, just as it did Tuesday against No. 5 seed Clemson, but the bottom of the order rallied with a string of timely hits to take control in the bottom of the sixth.
After Jack Labosky worked a one-out, seven-pitch walk—the junior reached base all four times he came to the plate—sophomore Kennie Taylor moved him to second base with his second single of the day.
Michael Smiciklas then hit a grounder that was a couple feet from being an inning-ending double play ball, but Clement had to field it ranging to his right at short and made an errant throw to second base that Andy Weber could not handle. When the dust cleared, everybody was safe and the bases were loaded.
Max Miller lined a single into right field to score Labosky and tie the contest at two, and after Phillips whiffed for the second out of the inning, nine-hole hitter Chris Proctor strode to the plate for the biggest at-bat of the game.
The sophomore catcher worked the count full before slapping an opposite-field single to left to plate two runs and put Duke (30-27) in front 4-2.
"Since it was bases loaded, two outs, I knew I had to get a hit. He missed and went behind 3-0, so I was going to see a strike," Proctor said. "I didn’t try to do too much, I just kind of put my best swing on it."
Virginia (44-12) cut the deficit in half in the seventh inning, as a leadoff double by Caleb Knight turned into a run against starter Ryan Day. But the Blue Devil bullpen shut the door on its opponent for the second straight game.
Graduate student Nick Hendrix recorded four critical outs in his 11th straight scoreless appearance, and closer Jack Labosky—who had surrendered two runs in each of his last two outings—gave up a leadoff walk in the ninth but did not let pinch-runner Justin Novak get past third base.
"For [Hendrix] to go on this magical run at the end of his career at Duke, already with two Duke diplomas in his back pocket, it couldn’t happen to a better person," Pollard said. "He’s a captain, he’s been a leader in our program, he embodies everything that we hold near and dear."
Duke opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with a two-out rally fueled by a walk to Griffin Conine, double by Labosky and
Day settled down, though, needing just 85 pitches to get through 6 2/3 innings for a quality start.
He got plenty of help behind him as well, with left fielder Jimmy Herron making a spectacular leaping catch at the wall in the top of the sixth to prevent a run-scoring extra-base hit by Robbie Coman.
"Off the bat obviously, I wish I had that pitch back, kind of hung a changeup," Day said. "But I saw Jimmy had a read on it, and when he came down with it, it was surreal. It was the best feeling ever."
The Blue Devils locked up their fourth straight 30-win season with the victory, and more importantly, earned the right to keep playing Saturday. Duke still likely needs to win the championship this weekend to earn
Duke will avoid top-seeded Louisville in the semifinals, as the Cardinals lost to No. 8 seed Florida State 6-2 Friday evening. The Blue Devils will play the Seminoles at noon Saturday.
"We understand that we have to play each game like it’s our last, and we’re embracing that and playing really loose," Proctor said. "We’re doing a good job knowing where we’re at and knowing we can play with any team in the country and we can win."
This article was updated Friday at 8 p.m. following the end of the game between Florida State and Louisville.
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