Duke baseball weekend recap

If you drop your ACC-opening series at home, the best way to make up ground is to win the first road series.

That’s what Duke’s baseball team did this weekend.

The Blue Devils won two of three games at Clemson, splitting a Saturday doubleheader and leaving Clemson with a late-innings rally in the series finale on Sunday.

“We were really tough. We had some self-inflicted wounds earlier in the game and it allowed them to get back into the game,” coach Chris Pollard said after Sunday’s 11-8 win. “We were tough enough not to give into it and sometimes that is a really hard thing to do on the road in a hostile environment. Our team showed great fight.”

Duke (13-7, 3-3 ACC) is home against Towson on Tuesday before getting an early start on its next ACC series, a Thursday-Saturday slate at North Carolina.

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Here is a quick recap of each game this weekend:

On Saturday, a five-man effort on the mound limited Clemson’s damage, while homers by Andrew Fischer and Giovanni DiGiacomo in the fifth inning proved to be enough for series-opening win.

Jonathan Santucci pitched a season-low 3 1/3 innings, allowing a season-high six hits and four walks. But he only gave up two runs, on a first-inning walk and a fourth-inning single.

Charlie Bielenson (1-1) pitched the next 1 1/3 innings, earning the win. Owen Proksch recorded three outs, and Fran Oschel III pitched 1 2/3, striking out four of the eight batters he faced. James Tallon recorded a five-out save, allowing two hits and recording two strikeouts.

Fischer’s homer led off the fifth for Duke, which only had one hit in the first four innings. MJ Metz had a two-out single later in the inning, and then DiGiacomo provided what turned out to be the game-winning homer with a two-run blast.

Later Saturday, these teams didn’t wait long to surpass scoring totals from the first game.

Clemson jumped on the Blue Devils by scoring in each of the first five innings, including a five-run third and a four-run fourth. By the end of that fourth inning, the Tigers’ lead was 13-7.

Adam Boucher gave up three runs as Duke’s starter, and then Jason White (2-1) and Aaron Beasley gave up five runs and five hits apiece.

Duke hung around offensively because of Jay Beshears’ 3-for-5 performance that included two homers, and because of a 3-for-4, two-RBI game by Metz, who also homered. Alex Stone and Fischer also homered for Duke, which scored six of its nine runs via homer.

On Sunday, Duke trailed by two runs entering the eighth, and by one entering the ninth, before a series-winning rally.

Clemson’s lead was 6-4 before Luke Storm hit a two-run homer in the eighth. That was part of his 3-for-5 day, and the only other Blue Devil with multiple hits was Chad Knight, who was 2-for-4.

The Tigers (12-8, 1-2) regained the lead with Cooper Ingle’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.

Duke blasted five runs in the ninth, starting with Beshears’ one-out homer to tie the game. Knight doubled in the go-ahead run before Damon Lux launched a three-run homer that provided breathing room for the bottom of the inning.

“Damon Lux, what a step-up moment for him,” Pollard said.

Tallon allowed one run and two hits in the ninth, but that was the extent of the damage in closing out the win. Alex Gow pitched four innings in the start for Duke, allowing three runs (one earned), with Bielenson and Aidan Weaver (2-1) also pitching in relief.