What started as a chance for a dominant statement ended in yet another fizzle for Duke baseball.
The Blue Devils opened the weekend in Coral Gables, Fla., with a 13-3 drubbing of Miami, totaling 12 hits and taking advantage of nine walks; every starter reached base. But a pair of close losses — in which Duke had zero hits past the sixth inning — left the Blue Devils with another heartbreaking series defeat.
Sunday’s contest appeared to be trending in Duke’s direction until Dorian Gonzalez Jr. took matters into his own hands. After responding to a five-run rally from Miami (20-17, 6-9 in the ACC) in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run homer by infielder Jake Berger — his first hit of the weekend — the Blue Devils turned to Ryan Higgins to calm things down.
The senior was commanding his fastball well to start, but left a 1-2 pitch over the heart of the plate for Gonzalez to capitalize on. While he shortened his swing because of the two-strike count, the 5-foot-9 senior still had enough pop to send the ball over the right-field fence and put the home team on top.
In his next at-bat, Gonzalez took yet another two-strike offering deep to right, this time hitting the ball over the head of a watching Tyler Albright. The big fly gave the Hurricanes an 8-6 advantage, leaving plenty of runway for pitchers Will Smith and Brian Walters to work with.
The duo, especially Smith, sliced and diced Duke’s batters. Smith totaled five strikeouts in just 2.1 innings pitched, and the Blue Devils (24-13, 9-8 in the ACC) could not seem to time up his curveball. That was the story of the latter half of the weekend for head coach Chris Pollard’s squad. Despite a three-run fourth inning Saturday and a first-inning home run from Albright Sunday, Duke could not find offensive success against Miami’s arm barn, losing 5-4.
Freshman Henry Zatkowski continued to fill the developing role of Sunday starter, posting a squeaky-clean three innings before losing his footing as fatigue wore him down. The Clarksville, Md., native has become known for his command of the zone, but a pair of walks in the fifth inning were his ultimate downfall.
Zatkowski’s afternoon could have ended an inning earlier, though, if not for the savvy defensive instincts of senior Wallace Clark. After Hurricane infielder Jake Ogden took a 1-0 pitch up the middle for a single, Fabio Peralta laid down a well-placed bunt towards third base. Both Ben Miller and Zatkowski crashed and it was the pitcher who got there first, picking up the ball with his back to first base — a common difficulty in fielding bunts for southpaws. Still, the hurler made the throw to Jake Hyde, who saw Ogden streaking towards a now-unoccupied third base.
In a race to the bag, Clark sprinted out of his position near second to chase down Peralta, snagged the throw from Hyde in traffic and laid out to get the tag. If that was not enough, the senior made another diving stop to end the inning and send the Blue Devils back to bat.
Earlier in the series, Clark and the rest of Duke’s hitters seemed poised and aggressive, riding the momentum of two walk-off midweek wins into Friday’s blowout. Hyde was the headliner with a sixth-inning grand slam, but six different Blue Devils recorded an RBI. Duke batted around in the first inning despite a ground-ball double play from Miller, and 10 Blue Devils had an at-bat in the sixth.
Friday’s barrage made the next two losses all the more frustrating for a Duke team that has not been able to consistently meet its potential. The top three batters in the lineup totaled just three hits over the final pair of games, and the squad’s 17 strikeouts outnumbered its 15 hits.
The Blue Devils will look to get back on track with a midweek game against App State Tuesday before welcoming Pittsburgh to Durham for a Thursday-Saturday series.
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Dom Fenoglio is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.