With the Wildcats in town, it was the dogs of Durham that came out on top.
Tuesday evening saw Duke host Davidson in its first of four Bark in the Park games; fans packed the stands of Jack Coombs Field with their canine companions and watched the Blue Devils take the win 12-0, their second straight run-rule victory.
On full display was the depth of Duke’s bullpen. A collective six arms combined for the shutdown, allowing the Wildcats to put up just three hits.
“Max Stammel and Collins Black were really, really good …They were electric,” head coach Chris Pollard said.
The duo held down the defense in the third through fifth innings, conceding only one hit and no walks over the stretch. Stammel and Black also punched out two batters apiece.
“We didn’t want anybody to extend to a point where we couldn’t have them ready to go for this weekend, and it was kind of mission accomplished from that standpoint,” Pollard continued.
Gabe Nard earned the starting nod and got his first three outs the hard way. After Noah Jouras got on with a first-pitch line drive through the third-short gap, junior Eli Putnam laced a line drive that found ground deep in right field and gave him time to leg out a double.
With two runners in scoring position, Nard induced a line out and caught Cider Canon looking at a low fastball to net two outs. Although he gave up a walk on a full-count to load the bases, a tumbling slider low in the zone got Jamie Daly to bite for strike three, bringing the Blue Devils’ bats to the plate without early damage. Nard’s night ended after two scoreless innings, across which he also recorded three strikeouts before handing the ball over to the lefty Stammel. The junior’s ERA now sits at a strong 3.33 across 27 innings of work this season.
“Gabe was workmanlike. I think if you ask him, that’s not his best outing. But it was great to see him get a lot of swing and miss on the slider,” Pollard said.
On the offensive side of the plate, Duke postured to be in for a slow start — a problem that had plagued the often stagnant offense early in the season. With two outs in the second, however, Andrew Yu barreled up the ball 107 mph off the bat, clearing the left-center wall. The solo shot was the catcher’s third home run this season.
Stammel then picked up where Nard left off, making it through the third and fourth innings scoreless and doing so with just 23 pitches. The Wildcats’ only baserunner against him came on a Michael O’Shaughnessy single into right field in the third.
The fourth inning was where things seemed to click for the Blue Devils’ bats. Their second run and the first real answer to Davidson reliever David Smith was another solo home run, this time off the bat of Ben Rounds. The Harvard transfer’s efforts seemed to put a crack in the armor — Yu managed to draw a walk and AJ Gracia got a single to drop in center field.
Wallace Clark then drew a walk of his own, loading the bases for Jake Berger with no outs and forcing the Wildcats to dig deeper into their bullpen. Berger, also a Harvard transfer, sent a fly ball deep into left field that gave Yu room to tag up and make it 3-0 in Duke’s favor. Ben Miller advanced the runners on a groundout to first, giving Jake Hyde a chance with two runners in scoring position. The Georgetown transfer battled through a six-pitch at-bat before lining a single into center field that brought in another two runs.
“Jake Hyde with a couple of fantastic two-out at-bats. The two-strike, two-out at-bat was huge,” Pollard said.
Duke capitalized again in the bottom of the fifth. Berger came back to the plate with the bases loaded and two out. He laced a line drive into left-center field, good for two RBIs that extended the lead to 7-0.
But the Blue Devils were far from done. Hyde got a bases-loaded chance of his own and skyed a ball over the left-field wall. The grand slam — lifted at a 37-degree launch angle — was his fourth home run of the season. Hyde ended the night with a game-high six RBIs, followed by Berger’s four.
“We just have been really good at not leaving the zone…and then all of a sudden, a guy comes into the zone a little more than he wants to, and we’re able to put a good swing on it,” Pollard said.
Veteran shortstop Wallace Clark is a big piece of this offensive approach. He walked four times against Davidson — a career high. Clark has now reached base in 30 consecutive games, part of an impressive .514 OBP.
Ryan Higgins further contributed to the defensive effort with a scoreless sixth inning in which he punched out two batters. The senior has struggled to start the season — his ERA is on the weaker end of the bullpen at 6.62 — but he was able to get through the meat of the Wildcats’ lineup without any trouble, which Pollard highlighted as a welcome sign.
The Blue Devils closed the scoring with a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the sixth, putting them up 12-0. David Boisvert and Kyle Johnson posted a clean seventh inning together to end the game via run rule.
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“I thought that we came out a little bit flat tonight … And then after that second inning, I thought we settled in and played a really good baseball game,” Pollard said.
Next up for Duke is a trip down Tobacco Road for a rivalry series at North Carolina.