Blue Devils battle back, lose in 11th

DURHAM – Duke yo-yoed from going down six runs in the first three innings to seizing momentum to battling N.C. State into extra innings in the first night of the ACC tournament.

The end result was the same as it’s been for the Blue Devils in seven of its last 10 games.

N.C. State beat Duke 8-7 in the 11th inning on Tuesday night at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in pool play of the ACC tournament.

While obviously not the result Duke (35-20) wanted, it’s the fight exhibited that coach Chris Pollard wants to see carried forth into Friday’s game against Miami and afterward, into the NCAA tournament.

“I thought we competed like crazy,” Pollard said. “That’s been the identity of this team all year and in the huddle afterward, I just told (the team) that I’m very proud of them tonight.”

Duke (35-20) trailed 7-1 after three innings. It lost on Cannon Peebles’ single up the middle to drive in Noah Soles with one out in the 11th.

It’s everything in between from which Duke can draw inspiration as it moves forward.

The only non-two-out runs Duke scored was MJ Metz’s two-run home run in the ninth. Otherwise, it was a grinding, clutch comeback spread across the last six scheduled innings, getting a run here, a couple there, and winding up putting the game into extra innings.

“There’s a confidence about this team, just because we’ve done it so many times, where our bullpen has been really good and our offense has really gotten going over the second half of a game,” Pollard said.

“We’re just trying to take it at-bat by at-bat, winning at-bats,” said catcher Alex Stone, who was 4-for-5 and extended his hitting streak to 29 games. “Keep winning at-bats, good things happen.”

Stone had a single to score a run in the seventh, making it 7-5. The previous three runs came on two-out singles to score two runs and one in the fourth and sixth, respectively, both by Tyler Albright.

There’s an easy correlation to be drawn between how Duke ended the regular season and how it started the postseason.

After winning the series opener at Miami, the Blue Devils lost a five-run lead in the last two innings and fell in the 11th of the middle game. Saturday’s series finale saw a 10-1 loss to the Hurricanes.

Duke trailed N.C. State 7-1 after three innings on Tuesday night, meaning over a 16-inning span the Blue Devils were outscored 24-2.

“What I told our guys was that we want to use the momentum from the second half of this game,” Pollard said, “we want to carry that into Friday.

“I thought we did a really good job of getting back to our competitive identity in the second half of the game today.”

By beating Duke, N.C. State (35-18) needs to beat Miami on Thursday night to advance to Saturday’s semifinal game against the winner of Pool A (Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh). The Blue Devils play Miami on Friday afternoon in a game that will only matter for the Blue Devils to enter the NCAA tournament on a high note.

Aidan Weaver had about as bad of a start as a pitcher can have. He issued a four-pitch walk to start the game; his fifth pitch was launched onto the roof of Tobacco Road Sports Café in left field by LuJames Groover III.

Weaver faced one more batter, who singled, before he was pulled in the first of three pitching changes in the first three innings by the Blue Devils.

Duke’s first three pitchers — Weaver, Adam Boucher and Owen Proksch — combined to allow seven runs on six hits and four walks. The next three pitchers — Jason White, Charlie Bielenson and Fran Oschell III — combined to retire 20 of 21 batters from the third inning through the top of the ninth, affording Duke time to tie the game.