Duke baseball falls short of series victory in rubber match at North Carolina

Final season, when the Blue Devils performed North Carolina, they cut up the primary two video games of the sequence earlier than falling within the rubber match. Because the saying goes, historical past repeats itself. Simply over a 12 months later, this time in a street sequence at Chapel Hill, Duke confirmed resilience in its Friday victory however finally dropped the ultimate recreation and the sequence Saturday.

Behind two house runs and a 10-strikeout day for its pitching employees, No. 19 North Carolina defeated Duke 5-3. The Blue Devils — who’ve hit .288 as a workforce this season — mustered simply six hits, however the Tar Heels’ lineup was in a position to money in on the proper occasions to push themselves excessive. Whereas this weekend included Duke’s third top-25 win, a thriller Friday evening wherein sophomore Alex Mooney hit a go-ahead three-run house run within the high of the eighth, it has but to win a sequence in opposition to a ranked opponent.

“Very even, back-and-forth sequence the entire approach,” head coach Chris Pollard mentioned. “They have an incredible membership and I assumed we matched them toe to toe … We simply could not get sufficient going offensively over the again half of the sport.”

The Tar Heels’ lineup, 5 of whom got here into Saturday hitting above .300, wasted no time in attacking beginning pitcher Alex Gow. Preseason first-team All-American Vance Honeycutt led off the underside of the primary with a screamer to left subject that he become a double after freshman Tyler Albright didn’t present sufficient urgency monitoring it down. Three batters later, junior catcher Tomas Frick drove the ball to the underside of the wall in middle subject for his nation-leading thirteenth double that introduced Honeycutt house for the sport’s first run. 

Nevertheless, the Blue Devils’ introduced some early extra-base hits of their very own. After two quiet innings, Albright led off the underside of the third with a double hammered down the left subject line. Mooney and freshman Andrew Fischer then hit back-to-back doubles to proper to tilt the scales again in favor of the Blue Devils at 2-1. Albright and Fischer have develop into regulars within the lineup because the season has gone on, with the latter getting extra comfy hitting behind Mooney within the No. 2 spot.

“We’re getting higher as a membership. [If] you take a look at us in comparison with the place we’re a month in the past, this can be a [much] higher membership,” Pollard mentioned of the workforce’s enchancment over the season. “That is the important thing, is simply [trying] to get 1% higher every single day.”

Gow settled in, even recording three outs on three pitches within the third inning, earlier than Johnny Castagnozzi acquired a maintain of 1 and took it 421 ft to left middle within the backside of the fourth. The Kenyon switch’s day ended within the fifth after junior Mac Horvath additionally drove a ball to deep left middle, this time with two runners on, to place North Carolina forward 5-2.

The one dent Duke might make within the lead got here within the high of the sixth inning on some small ball. Junior Jay Beshears led off with a double down the left subject line, and a sacrifice fly from junior Alex Stone moved him to 3rd. Then, junior Luke Storm put the ball in play by way of a gradual dribbler again to the pitcher, which served successfully as a bunt and gave Beshears loads of time to attain.

“We have a protracted stretch the place we’re again at house and [can] get contemporary, and I feel that mixed with the best way we’re taking part in [will mean] issues will handle themselves,” Pollard mentioned.