Duke’s series finale last weekend at North Carolina was a 14-inning game and the Blue Devils’ pair of mid-week games didn’t ease up on the drama scale.
Duke’s baseball team beat William & Mary in an extra-inning game on Tuesday night, and then beat Campbell with a walk-off grand slam on Wednesday.
It gives the Blue Devils a boost heading into — unofficially — the second half of the ACC season. Duke (23-12) holds an 8-7 record in league games, which is tied for eighth in the league standings with UNC, which just took two of three from Duke. The Blue Devils are headed to Miami for a three-game series that starts Friday night.
“I am incredibly proud of our team and our resilience. We are dog tired and knew that coming into today,” coach Chris Pollard said after Wednesday night’s win. “We knew that we were going to have a lot of pitchers step up that haven’t thrown a lot as of late and they kept us in the ballgame.”
Here are quick recaps of each game from this week so far:
Duke 3, William & Mary 2 (12 innings)
On Tuesday, Noah Murray had a pinch-hit RBI single in the 12th that delivered the win.
Tyler Albright walked to start the bottom of the 12th and moved up to third base on a single by Macon Winslow. After a groundout that moved Winslow to second, Murray hit a 2-1 pitch to left field to end the game.
Duke was outhit 8-6 but a six-man pitching effort stifled the Tribe’s offense, for the most part. Gabe Nard started and gave up one run in his only inning of work, and Max Stammel pitched the next three innings, also allowing one run.
Ryan Higgins pitched two hitless innings after Stammel’s exit. Reid Easterly pitched three innings and allowed two hits, but struck out three and didn’t allow a run. James Tallon recorded a 1-2-3 10th inning, and Ryan Calvert (3-0) earned the win by pitching the last two innings.
Duke’s other two runs came on Ben Miller’s RBI single in the first inning and Jake Berger’s sacrifice fly in the seventh. The Blue Devils’ only lead of the game was when they scored the walk-off run.
Duke 10, Campbell 7
On Wednesday, a wild comeback over the last two innings was capped by sophomore outfielder Sam Harris’ two-out grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The Blue Devils trailed 7-2 in the middle of the eighth. They scored three runs in that inning, all with two outs, starting with an RBI single by Harris. Albright scored on a passed ball and Murray drove in a run to make it a two-run deficit.
In the ninth, the Blue Devils put two on with two out before an RBI single by Winslow made it a one-run game. Andrew Yu walked to load the bases, and then Harris ended the game with a walk-off blast to centerfield.
“The conversation starts and ends with Sam Harris. I am really thrilled for that kid,” Pollard said via news release. “He works his tail off and has been in and out of the lineup a lot. That’s hard and he has stayed really patient and made the most of it the last two days.”
Harris was 4-for-5 with five RBI against Campbell; he walked twice against William & Mary, scoring the game-tying run.
Yu was 1-for-3 with two walks, scoring three times. Winslow was 2-for-5, the only Blue Devil with a multi-hit game against the Camels other than Harris.
That bullpen effort Pollard mentioned earlier included Roman DiGiacomo pitching a scoreless seventh, Gavin Brown recording a 1-2-3 eighth, and Henry Zatkowski (4-1) entering in the ninth and stranding a runner.
Duke’s first four pitchers in the game — Kyle Johnson, Aidan Weaver, Collins Black and Mark Hindy — were each charged with allowing at least one run.