Blue Devils bash UNCW in opener of regional
MJ Metz’s three-homer day paces way as Duke steams past Seahawks
Just what the doctor ordered for Duke’s baseball team — and specifically MJ Metz.
Duke rolled to a 12-3 win over UNC Wilmington in the opening game of the Conway regional, getting three home runs by Metz after he suffered a torn ACL in last week’s ACC tournament.
The Blue Devils (36-21) entered the NCAA baseball championship having lost four straight games and trailed 2-0 after two innings, but throttled the Seahawks in the middle and late stages of the game.
Duke will face the winner of Friday night’s game between host Coastal Carolina, the No. 10 seed overall in the tournament, and Rider. That game is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, with an elimination game between UNCW and the loser of that game slated for noon.
Metz, a graduate transfer from Division III Trinity University, suffered the torn ACL against N.C. State last week and sat out the Blue Devils’ game against Miami. His three-homer game for Duke was the Blue Devils’ first since the last time they were in the NCAA tournament, when RJ Schreck hit three against Wright State in an elimination game in 2021.
Metz has a team-high 16 homers, and his last homer gave Duke 100 this season — the Blue Devils had already notched a program-record in that category.
A one-out double by Alex Mooney in the third inning — Duke’s first hit — sparked the Blue Devils. Mooney legged it into a double and scored on Andrew Fischer’s double.
Metz’s first homer led off the fourth and tied the game at 2-2, and Damon Lux’s two-out, two-run homer gave the Blue Devils a lead they didn’t relinquish for the rest of the day.
Metz smashed a two-run homer in the fifth after UNCW (34-22) scored a run in the top of the inning that made it a one-run game.
The Blue Devils blew the game open with a six-run seventh, which started with Jay Beshears hitting a solo homer and Metz teeing off on his third blast of the game.
Luke Storm had a sac fly in the seventh, and Lux hit an RBI double and scored on a double steal. It’s the first time since a 13-9 win over Longwood on May 7 that Duke has scored double-digit runs.
Alex Gow pitched into the fifth inning, allowing all three of UNCW’s runs on six hits. He didn’t allow a walk and struck out five. Charlie Bielenson (5-3) earned the win by pitching 2 2/3 innings, retiring all eight batters he faced (four strikeouts, four groundouts).
Adam Boucher and Aaron Beasley pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively.