Coming off an impressive sweep of Notre Dame—one in which the Blue Devils devastated the Fighting Irish 16-4 with a 12-run eighth inning to close out the series—Duke managed to continue its offensive fireworks against Richmond Tuesday afternoon on the road at Pitt Field.
The No. 10 Blue Devils delivered a similar blow to the Spiders, crushing them 13-2 with the help of three home runs to bring their scoring total to 48 runs in their last five games.
Duke’s impressive performance at the plate was led by designated hitter Chris Proctor, who had four hits in his five plate appearances and also got on base a fifth time via a walk. Proctor scored the second run of the first inning and also smacked his second home run of the year—a two-run shot to right-center field—in the third inning to put the Blue Devils in front 4-1. He contributed one more RBI with a single and came around to score again in the fourth.
Freshman first baseman Joey Loperfido joined Proctor with a big day at bat, collecting an RBI off a sacrifice fly to right in the first inning and contributing another two-run homer in the third inning. Jimmy Herron and Jack Labosky added hits in the fourth inning as well, as Duke (25-5) was already in front 9-1 after four frames.
“Proctor is really locked in. It’s great to see Jack Labosky have the type of at-bats that he had. We got good production up and down the lineup,” head coach Chris Pollard told GoDuke.com. “We had four freshmen in the starting lineup, so it was a young team out there on the field, but also on top of the guys that were productive in the starting lineup, we had a lot of guys come off the bench and have really good at-bats.”
Kennie Taylor brought the home-run total to three on the day, blasting one out of the park and into the trees behind center field in the seventh inning with nobody on base, and the Blue Devils did not let up from there, capping the day with a three-run, three-hit eighth inning.
Richmond (16-12) was only able to add one more run after its run in the first inning, bringing the final score to 13-2.
In addition to its domination at the plate, Duke performed well on the mound. Bryce Jarvis gave up two hits and one run in the first two innings before Graeme Stinson took over and only surrendered one hit though four innings, striking out a stellar six Spiders. The sophomore fireballer delivered a top-notch performance, including a 1-2-3 fourth inning.
“Our pitching was very, very solid. While you don’t hope for guys to get in trouble, it is a learning experience for them, and Bryce got into some trouble. It was self-inflicted there in the second, and then he had to grind it out and make some pitches to get off the field, and that’s a growing moment for him,” Pollard said. “On the flip side, Graeme was really efficient and was able to go out there and get a fourth inning. That allowed him to work and extend and got to 55 pitches, which still puts him in a comfortable window to be ready on Friday.”
Hunter Davis finished off the day for the Blue Devils, matching Jarvis’ two strikeouts and also giving up two hits and a run in three innings of work.
“Those are big innings with us having to turn around and play tomorrow. I feel like sometimes a broken record, let’s not forget that part of the reason that those guys were so good is because of the defense we played behind them,” Pollard said. “Zack Kone made some terrific plays at shortstop and went and got some balls in the outfield. [Michael] Rothenberg was really, really good behind the plate, so we pitched well, but they got the defense to help make them good.”
Duke will have a quick turnaround, returning home to play Campbell on Wednesday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The Blue Devils will then head to Winston-Salem, N.C., to continue their ACC slate, hoping to keep up their winning streak against Wake Forest.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.