Blue Devils bash N.C. State

CHARLOTTE – You might need to flip a coin to figure out what was the most impressive part of Thursday night’s game for Duke.

Was it Andrew Healy pitching five shutout innings, allowing one hit and facing the minimum 15 batters?

Or was it that a Blue Devils offense silent for four innings erupted with three home runs in the fifth inning, blasting Duke past N.C. State 8-1 at Truist Field?

“I thought it was the most complete performance that we’ve had all year,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said.

So, there’s that.

Healy (3-1) was fantastic in his fourth start since returning from a back injury that caused him to miss April; this was the first time since March that he pitched more than two innings.

Let’s go there first.

“It’s fun, just being on the mound, it’s a good feeling being around fans that — you’re the villain with everyone rooting against you,” the 6-6, 200-pound sophomore lefty said, referencing the crowd of 5,696 that was mostly clad in red. “It’s fun to kind of quiet them a little bit.

“They’re a really good team, so it wasn’t easy.”

Duke won both of its pool play games, beating Virginia Tech 11-8 on Tuesday night before hammering the Wolfpack. It means the sixth-seeded Blue Devils will play 11th-seeded Miami, which won both games of Pool B, in Saturday’s second semifinal game (scheduled for a 5 p.m. start).

The Blue Devils have won six straight games in ACC tournaments at this ballpark. They won the championship here in 2021, didn’t qualify for the 2022 tournament, and last year’s tournament was in Durham.

“The message to our team heading into this week was to not spend any time worrying about positioning for the NCAA tournament,” Pollard said. “I told our guys on Sunday … our challenge was, ‘Don’t go down to Charlotte and try to play to position yourself where you are in terms of the NCAA tournament. Go to Charlotte to win a championship.’”

They’re two wins away from doing just that, which would be Duke’s second ACC championship in four seasons.

The first four innings of this game flew by. Duke had two walks in that span and couldn’t do any damage; N.C. State’s only baserunner was Eli Serrano III singling in the fourth, and he was erased with a double play groundout on the next at-bat.

Duke’s best defensive play came from Chase Krewson when he made a diving catch in left field to rob Noah Soles of a hit in the third. That came two nights after the freshman outfielder threw a runner out at home to preserve what was then Duke’s 6-5 lead over the Hokies.

So, maybe it was fitting that Krewson was the one who started the homer barrage. He led off the fifth inning with a slicing, opposite-field drive over the fence in left field. In this ballpark where everything seems to carry a little farther, that one crept out for Duke’s first run — and hit — of the game.

Devin Obee and Wallace Clark followed Krewson’s homer with singles, and Kyle Johnson walked against a suddenly vulnerable Sam Highfill.

There was nothing about Zac Morris’ grand slam to make you think it crept over the fence.

The VMI transfer crushed 1-2 pitch to the base of the scoreboard in left field, going an estimated 455 feet. It was his third homer of the week and fifth in Duke’s last six games.

“He was right on another slider,” Pollard said of Morris’ blast. “We had talked about taking away the fastball … he was sitting fastball, timing it, and just reacted to it. The same thing he was doing on Tuesday night.”

Freshman AJ Gracia lifted one of those slicers over the fence in left field two batters later.

Obee had the only multi-hit game of the night for Duke, and his second hit was a two-run blast — again, left field — that was initially ruled a double off the wall.

Indirectly, Obee has North Carolina baseball players to thank for the overturn.

“Once I got to second, (freshmen) Roman DiGiacomo and Noah Murray, they were in the bullpen,” Obee said. “They looked out to the outfield and saw that some fans were cheering like, saying, ‘Home run, home run, home run.’ You know, Roman and Noah told Coach, go review it. And so they reviewed it and luckily it was a home run.

“Once I got out there, I found out that it was the UNC baseball team. So, it was a pretty cool moment getting to talk to those guys.”

Duke had its combined shutout bid end with two outs in the ninth, when Jacob Cozart doubled in Alec Makarewicz. The Blue Devils haven’t had a shutout since beating Akron 6-0 on March 1.

EXTRA BASES: Alex Stone was 0-for-4, ending his hitting streak at 13 games. … Healy’s lengthy start, along with Duke only needing to use James Tallon and Tim Noone out of the bullpen, means the Blue Devils go into the weekend with two potential starters and a rested bullpen. Pollard said he didn’t know who would start Saturday’s game; the likely options are freshman Kyle Johnson or ace Jonathan Santucci returning from a rib injury that caused him miss the last two weeks.