RALEIGH—Those watching March Madness have seen all weekend how quickly a team can go on a run and completely change the momentum of a game. Basketball is not the only sport that follows this pattern, though, as Duke baseball witnessed the influence of momentum firsthand in its weekend series against N.C. State.
After dropping two one-run games Friday and Saturday — the latter of which saw the Wolfpack erase a five-run deficit in the ninth inning — the Blue Devils were able to come out of Raleigh with one win, as they walloped N.C. State 13-2 Sunday. Duke hit five home runs in the game, including two from each of senior catcher Alex Stone and graduate second baseman Zac Morris.
“Sometimes you win and you realize, ‘well, we didn't really play that well.’ Well, this weekend, we lost a couple of times, but we did a lot of things really well that give me encouragement that we're closing in on being the team that I think we can be,” said head coach Chris Pollard after Sunday’s game.
After a chaotic end to Saturday’s game that saw the Wolfpack hit two massive ninth-inning home runs, Sunday’s matchup started just as messy, with both teams getting on the board in the first frame.
First, after the Blue Devils (17-7, 4-5 in the ACC) put two runners on base via a walk and hit by pitch, freshman right fielder AJ Gracia hit a hard ground ball to first. Graduate student Garret Pennington fielded it cleanly, but he threw the ball past the outstretched arm of his second baseman and into the outfield, allowing a run to cross the plate for Duke.
That lead did not last long, as Alec Makarewicz took an 0-2 pitch from sophomore Andrew Healy and turned on it, sending a no-doubter flying over the left-field fence to even the score. The ECU transfer showed his opposite-field power in his next at-bat, this time putting a ball into the N.C. State (15-7, 5-4) bullpen in right-center field.
Feeling left out of the action, Stone decided to mash a home run of his own in the fourth inning. His solo shot traveled over the media tower in center field, and he matched serve with Makarewicz in the seventh by donating a souvenir of his own to the Wolfpack bullpen in right.
While the veteran catcher has gotten off to a slow start on the season — he is hitting just .247 through this point — Pollard is confident that Stone’s production will continue to improve as the season goes on.
“The reality is, [Stone’s] got a big sample size that tells you that if you just let him keep playing, he's gonna give you really good production,” Pollard said. “You could see that starting today.”
Stone’s long balls were not all the Blue Devils had to offer. In the fourth inning, Morris lined one over the fence in right for a two-run shot, and junior center fielder Devin Obee drove one his own in the sixth.
All three of those Duke hitters drove the ball the other way, and the entire Blue Devil lineup displayed its ability to adjust to pitch location. For example, graduate first baseman Logan Bravo took an outside pitch to the fence in right for a double, driving in a speedy Ben Miller.
Morris punctuated this point with his second home run of the day, as he put a great swing on a 1-0 pitch with the bases loaded. As soon as the ball left his bat and headed towards right, it seemed inevitable that it would clear the fence. Sure enough, Morris was circling the bases moments later and the dugout was celebrating a 13-2 lead.
“We've been pitched away, away, away. We've had to kind of creep up on the plate as the weekend’s gone on, and just really kind of set our sights on that oppo gap,” Pollard said of the team’s approach at the plate. “I thought our guys did a great job of taking what was given to us today.”
On the other side of things, Duke’s bullpen did a better job keeping the ball in the zone than earlier in the series. A far cry from the Blue Devils’ 10 walks allowed Friday, they gave up just three free bases Sunday. Healy only gave up two hits over his five innings of work, and while they were both home runs, neither came with any runners on base.
This hampered most of N.C. State’s would-be momentum shifting moments and kept the home crowd out of things for the most part. In both Friday and Saturday’s games, small mistakes like walks and errors allowed the big swings to magnify the impact of the Wolfpack’s extra-base hits.
Duke will look to build on Sunday’s win in a midweek matchup against No. 24 Campbell before a ranked ACC series against No. 13 Virginia.
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Dom Fenoglio is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.