For Duke this weekend, 48 hours was the difference between crushing defeat and sweet victory.
Despite suffering a lopsided defeat to Cal Friday, the Blue Devils were able to bounce back Saturday and Sunday to win their first series in conference play against the visiting Golden Bears.
“We showed off our toughness over the last two days, especially today,” head coach Chris Pollard said. “Guys had to step up and they did, and I'm really proud of that.”
In the first game of the series, Cal jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead after the first inning. The visitors never looked back, dominating Duke 14-1. Wallace Clark’s home run was the lone bright spot for the Blue Devils, marking back to back games with a leadoff home run for the senior from Tulsa, Okla.
Although it was a hard pill to swallow, the defeat gave head coach Chris Pollard’s squad a needed wakeup call.
Duke learned from the loss, emerging victorious from a tightly contested game Saturday by a score of 6-2. Level at two apiece through five innings, Clark registered an RBI to send Ben Rounds home and put the Blue Devils up decisively. Duke piled on three more runs of insurance as the team earned its first conference win of the season.
Sunday provided yet another close game between conference foes.
A Macon Winslow bomb in the second inning gave the Blue Devils an early 2-0 lead. The Hertford, N.C. native launched one over the fence in left field to get the party started, but the Golden Bears would not go away. In the fourth inning, Cal’s Ryan Tayman got home to tie the game on the back of a Duke throwing error.
Ben Miller put the Blue Devils back on top in the fifth with a homer to right center field, but the Golden Bears had yet another response up their sleeves. A pair of doubles allowed Tayman to score for the second time, cutting the Duke lead to one heading into the bottom of the sixth.
With the pressure mounting, Miller hit a single to right center field, sending Clark home and setting the lead back at two.
“I can't say enough about Ben Miller and the at bats that he had,” Pollard said. “He’s just a captain being a captain.”
In the bottom of the eighth, the offense really showed out. Jake Berger registered an RBI before Tyler Albright hit the dagger in the form of a single that sent Berger home.
Heading into the ninth inning, it was all down to the defense to seal the deal. Henry Zatkowski struck out the side to send Cal back home and clinch the win for the Blue Devils in both the game and the series.
“They didn't go away, credit to them,” Pollard said. “We did a good job of running a couple balls out of the yard, and then we were clutch there over the back half of the game.”
Duke’s next test comes Tuesday at home against George Mason.
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