Duke baseball mid-week rundown
Blue Devils split a couple of games with Rider
Duke didn’t carry its momentum forward from winning its first ACC series, but the Blue Devils will take it into their second league matchup.
Duke lost the first game of a two-game series against Rider (2-10), and then blew out the Broncs the following day.
The Blue Devils (14-3) play host to Clemson this weekend. The Tigers are 14-1 and haven't played an ACC series yet, though they did sweep a shortened two-game series against South Carolina earlier this season.
Here is a breakdown of each game against Rider:
Rider 6, Duke 2
On Tuesday, Duke out-hit Rider but couldn’t come up with the big ones, losing the first game of the two-game set.
Zac Morris, Alex Stone, AJ Gracia and Devin Obee each had two hits, with both of Stone’s being doubles and Tyler Albright adding a double. Duke stranded six runners, hitting into two double plays and having a runner caught stealing (Morris).
Clayton Poliey was the pitcher who flummoxed the Blue Devils for most of the game. He pitched eight innings, allowing eight hits. He didn’t issue a walk and had eight strikeouts.
Duke starter Tim Noone gave up three runs in three innings. Aidan Weaver gave up a run in the fourth, and Edward Hart was tagged for Rider’s last two runs.
Duke got three shutout innings from Ryan Higgins, plus one from Fran Oschell III.
Duke 18, Rider 4
On Wednesday, Rider actually scored the first four runs of the game before Duke erased that early deficit.
The Blue Devils had a 10-run bottom of the first, sending 15 batters to the plate and having 10 straight reach base.
The first two runs came on a single by Gracia. Macon Winslow hit a two-run double, Chase Krewson drove in a run with a single, and then Wallace Clark had an RBI double. The big hit was a three-run double by Ben Miller, and Stone capped the scoring with an RBI double.
Duke cruised from there, adding another couple of runs in the third, one in the seventh, and five more in the eighth.
Jackson Emus started and pitched three innings. Four relievers combined for six shutout innings, with David Boisvert and Nick Conte pitching two innings each, and Josh Allen and Hart taking one inning apiece.