BUIES CREEK, N.C.—Sometimes you just don’t have it.
The Blue Devils certainly didn’t Tuesday evening at Jim Perry Stadium, dropping a midweek tilt with Campbell 18-4 in a seven-inning run-rule loss. The lopsided game allowed the Camels to split the season series after Duke took the March 26 matchup in Durham 11-1.
It was a tale of two teams having very different days. Six Blue Devil pitchers took the mound, and all but one surrendered multiple runs. Six Campbell hitters contributed RBIs, and the hosts controlled the contest in its entirety.
“We came in a little thin on the mound and Campbell swung it really well,” head coach Chris Pollard said.
When reigning Big South Player of the Year Lawson Harrill stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the third, he could already consider his day successful. The redshirt senior had sent a ball over the wall in each of the first two innings for his 16th and 17th homers of the year. In his third at-bat, he hit his third of the game. This one, a grand slam, put the Camels up 12-0 — with seven of those runs coming off the bat of Harrill.
The Shelby, N.C., product’s performance was just the centerpiece of a completely dominant showing from Campbell.
Duke (29-12, 13-8 in the ACC) threatened to take control of the matchup early. Leadoff man Zac Morris worked a walk to start the game and scrambled his way to third base. With the opening run standing 90 feet away, catcher Alex Stone pulled a pitch down the left-field line that looked like it may give Duke the early lead and the momentum. However, the ball tailed just left of the base of the Campbell Orange foul pole, and the captain eventually struck out to end the inning.
The Camels (26-13) took advantage of the near miss. In the bottom half of the first, it was déjà vu. A single put a runner on base before Harrill roped one to nearly the exact same spot as Stone had, once again looking like it might get the scoring started before curling foul. Unfortunately for starting pitcher Tim Noone and the Blue Devils, the outcome was different — Harrill hit a subsequent pitch even harder, this time over the porch seating beyond the left-field fence to give Campbell an early 2-0 advantage.
This was just a glimpse at how the contest would go. The Camels added on an inning later, first via small ball and later with the big blast.
A double, a walk and a single loaded the bases, allowing for a Braeden O’Shaughnessy sacrifice fly to score Campbell’s third run. This was the final batter Noone would face, as Duke turned to the bullpen and right-hander Jackson Emus in an attempt to limit the damage.
The Princeton transfer was unsuccessful, hanging a pitch over the heart of the plate that catcher Grant Knipp deposited to left for his 17th homer in just 25 games, this one of the three-run variety. Two batters later, Harrill hit his second blast of the game, and suddenly the home side led 7-0 before Duke had even registered a hit.
“We’ve been pushing hard,” Pollard said, citing next week’s finals break as a chance to reset. “Seven out of our last eight games [have been] on the road.”
The fourth brought more of the same. Duke managed to scrape a run across in the top of the frame with a Devin Obee sacrifice fly, but Campbell quickly erased any shred of hope the run procured with a three-run shot from Charlie Meglio. The homer came off lefty Edward Hart and put the Camels up 15-1.
The Blue Devils’ most productive inning of the evening came when Pollard turned to the bench. Pinch hitters Noah Murray and Chad Knight reached safely to start the inning, with the former coming around to score on a wild pitch and the latter scoring on an Andrew Yu sacrifice fly to make it 15-3. Harrison Rodgers took home on a wild pitch in the sixth to make the deficit 11 runs.
“We had 11 losses prior to today by 21 runs, so we just have had a lot of close games, especially over the second half of the season,” Pollard said. “That hasn't allowed us to get into our bench a lot and develop some of those guys, so it was nice to get some of those guys in there tonight.”
Third baseman Ben Miller flared one to right-center field in the top of the third inning to notch Duke’s first hit and extend his hitting streak to 18 games. Freshman AJ Gracia followed with a single of his own, but the Blue Devils failed to push anything across the plate, remaining scoreless.
Junior right-hander David Boisvert pitched a clean fifth, the first scoreless frame of the contest for the Blue Devils. Senior lefty Josh Allen couldn’t do the same in the sixth, surrendering three runs to allow Campbell to go up 18-4. Duke went quietly in the top of the seventh to bring the game to a close.
Pollard and the Blue Devils will attempt to put the loss in the rearview mirror and shift their focus to the weekend, as they return home for yet another top-10 series against No. 10 Florida State.
“[Seminole head coach] Link [Jarrett] has done a great job of rebuilding their club from where they were this time last year,” Pollard said. “It'll be a great challenge for us and we're excited about it.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.