With Wednesday’s matchup canceled due to weather, Duke only had one midweek opportunity to test its mettle before a monster weekend series against No. 1 Wake Forest. On Tuesday afternoon against Appalachian State, the Blue Devils made the most of that opportunity.
No. 12 Duke smashed its way to a victory against the Mountaineers at Jack Coombs Field, improving to 11-1 on the season and raising expectations for this weekend’s clash against the Demon Deacons. The Blue Devils scored enough runs for the two days combined in what ended up being the lone midweek contest for the group. They hung 28 runs on the visitors, the most since 1999, highlighted by a 16-run fifth inning in which they batted around the order twice. Duke surrendered just two runs of its own.
“Offensively, I thought we did a great job of forcing [Mountaineer left-fielder CJ] Boyd into a small zone and then when we got fastballs, we didn't miss them,” said Duke head coach Chris Pollard. “I loved that response in the fifth inning, we gave up two runs and we had a great response behind it and we kept our foot on the gas pedal the rest of the game.”
The Blue Devils (11-1) wasted no time exerting their talent in this one, plating six runs in the first inning to put the visitors in a sizable hole early. As has been the case all season long, Duke’s veteran presence at the top of the lineup paid major dividends, as Zac Morris, Ben Miller and Alex Stone all reached base in their first plate appearance of the day, with a Miller single being sandwiched between two walks.
“It's a group there one through four that's got a lot of college at-bats,” Pollard said. “We've got a bunch of guys that have played four years of college baseball, are now working on five years of college baseball and it's a little bit of a meat grinder for an opponent to have to go through, to face those guys right there four in a row.”
From there, Pollard’s squad began to pour it on, with Logan Bravo delivering the first punch with a sacrifice fly to right that brought Morris home. After another walk drawn by freshman AJ Gracia, Duke kept the line moving, as Devin Obee smoked a double to left-field that brought home two more runs. Right behind Obee, freshman Macon Winslow landed the biggest blow of them all, pulling a homer out to left field to extend the lead to six before three outs had been recorded.
Tim Noone reprised his role as midweek starter once again Tuesday afternoon, as the Babson transfer took the mound for his third start of the season. Once again, Noone did his job admirably, mowing through the Appalachian State (9-3) order and collecting six strikeouts through three innings. This effort once again set up Duke for success in the latter half of the contest while simultaneously dropping Noone’s ERA on the season to 1.54.
“He's been in a starter role for his entire career and he just knows how to work as a starter,” Pollard said. “Throws a ton of strikes, when he falls behind, he gets right back in a count. He forces you to swing the bat so it just makes us better and you can see our offense has been really good when he's on the mound.”
After Noone’s lights-out three frames, Pollard turned to sophomore hurler James Tallon, who had been struggling coming into the contest after an excellent freshman campaign where he set the program record for saves. Tallon showed signs of returning to his former self in his one inning of work, racking up three strikeouts to keep Appalachian State scoreless.
Tallon gave way to Aidan Weaver in the top of the fifth, and the sophomore right-hander immediately was taken advantage of by Appalachian State. The Jamison, Pa., native walked the first two batters he faced, and a single by Zamora brought home the first run of the day for the Mountaineers before Boyd tacked on another courtesy of a sacrifice fly, chasing Weaver out of the game.
The Blue Devils responded decisively to a Appalachian State two-spot in the home side of the fifth, this time courtesy of the bottom half of the lineup. Obee started the party by crushing a home run that hurried out of the park over the left-field wall. Winslow rolled a double to the wall right behind him, and Kyle Johnson and Wallace Clark both reached base to load the bases for the leadoff man in Morris, who roped a two-RBI single to extend the lead to seven. As has become customary at this point, Miller came through behind Morris in what has been an elite one-two punch at the top of the batting order, as the Penn transfer skied a home run to left-center field to put Duke up 10.
The chains continued to move from this point, as singles from Stone and Bravo and another walk drawn by Gracia juiced the bases for Obee. He picked up his second RBI of the inning when he was hit by an offspeed pitch from Smith to put Duke up 13-2 before a single out had been recorded in the inning. The freshman continued to show out, as a Winslow sac fly and a Johnson double off the left-field wall pushed the tally to 15 for the home team.
In a full-circle moment, the order churned back around to Miller, and the Durham native hit another home run to roughly the same spot, this time a grand slam, to put the fifth inning tally for Duke at 14. In his seemingly impossible third at-bat of the inning, Obee had one final moment in him, knocking in two more runs before getting gunned at third base, putting the total at 22 heading into the top of the sixth.
“It's been really special being back home wearing this jersey, this is really a dream come true,” Miller said about his big day in front of the home crowd.
The rest of the contest was largely uneventful compared to the prior offensive explosion, as the Duke pitching staff threw four scoreless frames to end the contest. However, the Duke offense had a few more fireworks up its sleeve, as freshman Chase Krewson slugged a homer, Harrison Rodgers a triple and Noah Murray a double in the bottom of the seventh to give Duke 27 runs on the day. A solo shot from Andrew Yu in the eighth made it 28.
Next up for Duke is arguably its most anticipated matchup of the year as it will travel to No. 1 Wake Forest this weekend. Jonathan Santucci and Josh Hartle will face off in a battle of aces to begin the series Friday evening.
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