Duke baseball weekend recap

Duke and Virginia Tech split the first two games of an ACC baseball series this weekend, each of which went to 11 innings.

The series finale was another rollercoaster that Duke won 13-10 to win the series.

Duke entered the weekend in a three-way tie for second in the Coastal Division. Because the Blue Devils took two of three against the Hokies and Virginia lost two of three in a home series against Georgia Tech, the Blue Devils are now in second place by themselves in the division.

Duke (29-11, 13-8 ACC) is two games behind North Carolina (30-10, 15-6) for the division lead.

Here is recap of each game this weekend:

On Sunday, Duke scored the first three runs, gave up nine of the next 10, and rallied to win by scoring nine runs in the last three innings.

Trailing 9-4 entering the seventh, Duke’s comeback started with Ben Miller’s RBI groundout and an RBI grounder by Alex Stone, on which he reached base. Logan Bravo hit a three-run homer to tie the game.

Virginia Tech regained a lead on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh.

Duke tied it back up on Wallace Clark’s solo homer in the eighth. And then it was two homers in the ninth that won it; AJ Gracia with a solo homer and Devin Obee with a two-run blast as insurance.

That was plenty of cushion for Charlie Beilenson, who picked up his ninth save of the season with two strikeouts and a groundout in a 1-2-3 ninth. He was the last of the 13 pitchers used by the Blue Devils, only one of them facing more than five batters (Gabriel Nard faced 12 and gave up four runs).

Owen Proksch (3-0) got the win because he recorded the last two outs of the eighth. Tim Noone started the game and pitched 1 1/3, and David Boisvert followed him with an inning, giving up an unearned run. Duke gave up three other unearned runs, committing three errors.

Gracia was 3-for-5 with three RBI, and Bravo was 2-for-5. The bottom three of Duke’s lineup — Obee, Clark and Macon Winslow — had two hits each, with Obee driving in three runs.

Those three early Duke runs came on Gracia’s two-run homer in the first, and Miller’s solo homer in the second.

On Saturday, Virginia Tech walked it off by scoring on an error with two outs in the 11th.

Fran Oschell III allowed a walk and hit batter to start the inning. Duke got the first out at third base on a sacrifice bunt attempt, and then a fielder’s choice put runners at the corners with two outs.

Christian Martin hit a grounder to shortstop Wallace Clark, who threw to first for what would have been the inning-ending out. But Logan Bravo couldn’t finish the catch, and David McCann scored from third.

Duke’s run came in the third inning on an RBI double by Ben Miller. That was one of only four hits for the Blue Devils, and combined with three walks, they only had seven baserunners.

Before Devin Obee walked to lead off the 11th, 15 straight Blue Devils had been retired. Obee reached second with a sac bunt and Miller was intentionally walked with two outs, and Zac Morris struck out to end Duke’s best chance to take a lead in the last six innings.

Virginia Tech’s other run came in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly.

Duke freshman Kyle Johnson pitched a career high 5 1/3 innings. He gave up three hits and two walks, striking out six. Ryan Higgins pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, with scoreless 2/3-inning appearances out of Jimmy Romano and James Tallon sandwiching Higgins’ lengthy performance.

On Friday, Miller punched a single through the left side to score Tyler Albright in the 11th and that was only part of Miller’s heroics.

Miller led off the ninth with a home run that tied the game at 8-8. That came an inning after Logan Bravo’s leadoff homer made it a one-run game. Miller, playing for the first time in a week and a half because of a hand injury, was 3-for-5; Bravo was 3-for-4 with a double and two homers.

Beilenson didn’t pick up a save in the one-run win because he was already in the game. Duke’s closer pitched the last four innings, allowing a two-out double in the 11th and issuing an intentional walk before getting the game-ending groundout.

Beilenson has pitched in 19 of Duke’s 37 games and allowed 12 runs, all of them coming in a three-game stretch. He hasn’t allowed a run in eight straight appearances, that spanning 16 1/3 innings.

This was a bit of a game of runs — Virginia Tech scored the first two, Duke scored the next six, the Hokies scored six after that, and Duke the last three.

Zac Morris was 3-for-5 with a homer and Alex Stone was 2-for-5.

Jonathan Santucci started for Duke, giving up five runs (four earned) on six hits, four walks and two hit batters. Owen Proksch gave up VT’s other three runs (two earned); Gabriel Nard (1 1/3 innings) and Jackson Emus (one out) had scoreless showings to bridge the game to Beilenson.