The conference newcomers clad in Cardinal were far from kind hosts to the Blue Devils over the weekend.
Duke fell 10-5 to No. 18 Stanford Sunday evening to cap off a disappointing road sweep. After mustering just two runs through the first two games of the series, the Blue Devils entered Sunday looking to salvage a game and avoid a winless weekend. Instead, they squandered an early lead and were doubled up, heading back to Durham licking their wounds as they prepare to enter the heart of conference play.
After two clean innings that allowed Duke to build an early 4-0 lead, senior right-hander Ryan Higgins struggled in the third. A quick pickoff move to first nearly cleared the bases and gave the Blue Devils the first out of the inning, but the safe call was upheld after review. Cardinal third baseman Trevor Haskins got all of a misplaced pitch from Higgins to cut the lead in half, and suddenly Stanford was rolling.
Head coach Chris Pollard turned to the bullpen to stop the bleeding, but 6-foot-5 southpaw Edward Hart was unsuccessful in his mission. A quick single put a man on for freshman phenom Rintaro Sasaki, who had already hit his first and second career homers to lift the Cardinal to a run-rule victory Saturday. A deep fly to right-center field looked like it may sneak out to give the Japan native his third, but right fielder Tyler Albright tracked it down to make the catch just in front of the wall of the notoriously big Klein Field at Sunken Diamond. Sasaki would have to wait for number three.
Duke was not free yet though. A walk put another runner on with two outs, turning an inside-out swing from right fielder Brady Reynolds — the finale of a number of consecutive hard-hit balls but the first to find the outfield grass — into a RBI double that closed the gap to 4-3. Junior reliever Gabe Nard took the mound and seemed to do his job, inducing a fly ball to right, but the ball bounced off Albright’s glove as he approached the foul line. Suddenly, Stanford had pulled ahead.
When it was all said and done, the three pitchers combined to surrender five earned runs and the lead.
An RBI double from Wallace Clark gave the Blue Devils’ response, knotting the game at five runs apiece. The Cardinal got right back to its hitting ways though, breaking things open in the bottom of the fourth.
With Nard still on the bump, Stanford quickly put runners on first and second once again, and the order came back around to Sasaki. The 6-foot, 275-pounder didn’t miss this time, walloping a mammoth three-run home run to the scoreboard in right center. Sydney native Jimmy Nati followed him up with a solo shot off Ryan Calvert two batters later, and suddenly the Cardinal led 9-5.
While Sunday games in college baseball are known to be high-scoring and a bit sloppy, Duke’s strength entering the season appeared to be a deep and talented bullpen. Stanford’s success was just another example of how the unit has failed to meet those lofty expectations through the first month of the season.
The Blue Devils looked poised to steal the series finale after getting off to a hot start at the plate. Albright’s single with runners on the corners scored Ben Miller for the first tally of the game, and a triple to the right-field corner off the bat of sophomore AJ Gracia — whose sluggish hitting has been a big factor in the team’s mediocre start — scored two more.
Duke’s pair of Harvard transfers manufactured the fourth run of the game an inning later, as Ben Rounds worked his way to third base before touching the plate on a Jake Berger double that was roped past Sasaki at first base.
The Cardinal added the final run of the game in the seventh inning to make it 10-5. The Blue Devils struggled to respond after the game was broken open, managing just one base runner in the final four innings.
Next up, Duke will look to bounce back in a midweek matchup at home against a talented UConn squad before once again hitting the road in conference play for a series at No. 23 Virginia.
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