Published Apr 27, 2025
Duke baseball weekend recap
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Conor O'Neill  •  DevilsIllustrated
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Duke and Virginia Tech played three baseball games this weekend and none of them ended in nine innings.

It resulted in a series win for the Blue Devils, who won Friday night’s game in 11 innings and won via mercy rule in Sunday’s finale. Virginia Tech notched an 11th-inning win in the middle game on Saturday.

“I thought it was a great job when we got up, continuing to pour it on,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said after Sunday’s game via news release. “I challenged our club today not to play the scoreboard. I thought we did that (Saturday), and it came back to get us. Today we kept our foot on the gas and our bench was great all day long, and we didn’t give them an inch.”

Here are quick recaps of each game from this weekend:

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Duke 6, VT 3 (11 innings)

On Friday, AJ Gracia hit the first pitch he saw — after Wallace Clark was intentionally walked in front of him — for a three-run home run and a walk-off win.

Macon Winslow led off the bottom of the 12th with a double, and then VT recorded a couple of outs before walking Clark. Gracia’s blast was his fifth homer of the season — he added another in the series finale, meaning four of his six homers have come this month.

Reid Easterly (7-1) got the win by pitching the final 4 1/3 innings. He relieved Owen Proksch, who gave up three runs on two hits and two walks, with 10 strikeouts. Easterly gave up three hits and struck out four.

Duke’s lead was 3-1 on the strength of solo homers by Ben Rounds and Ben Miller, and an RBI single by Jake Berger. VT tied the game in the seventh on a two-run homer by David Lewis.

VT 9, Duke 8 (11 innings)

On Saturday, Duke jumped out to a big lead with a six-run first inning and it was mostly bad news for the rest of the game.

The Hokies’ comeback occurred with a five-run fifth and three-run sixth, taking an 8-7 lead after the Blue Devils had tacked on another run in the third.

Duke tied the game in the eighth with an RBI single by Miller. The Blue Devils ended that inning with two strikeouts, stranding a couple of runners. Duke also stranded a runner in the ninth before its last seven batters of the game were retired.

A sacrifice fly by Ben Watson in the 11th was the game-winning run. It was unearned because of a passed ball earlier in the inning, charged to James Tallon (0-2).

Tallon was the sixth and final pitcher used by Duke. Andrew Healy started and pitched three scoreless innings, and Gavin Brown pitched a scoreless fourth.

Ryan Calvert and Gabe Nard gave up four runs apiece in VT’s comeback barrage. Mark Hindy pitched two scoreless innings before Tallon pitched the last three.

Gracia was 2-for-5 and had Duke’s only multi-hit game. Jake Hyde and Clark had two-run doubles in Duke’s big first inning.

Duke 14, VT 0 (7 innings)

On Sunday, the Blue Devils scored in five of the six innings they took at-bats to run away with a series-clinching blowout.

Miller drove in Duke’s first two runs with a sacrifice fly in the first inning and a solo homer in the third. He was 2-for-3 with three RBI, driving in another one with a double in the fourth.

Sam Harris blew the game open after Miller staked the Blue Devils to that 2-0 lead. Harris launched a grand slam later in the third inning.

Gracia had another big game, buoyed by a grand slam in the fifth. The sophomore outfielder was 2-for-5 with five RBI.

A three-man effort on the mound combined for a two-hitter. Henry Zatkowski allowed two hits in 4 2/3 innings, allowing one walk and striking out two. Seven of his 14 outs were recorded via groundout.

Hindy relieved him and pitched 1 1/3 innings; Easterly returned after his long night on Friday to record a 1-2-3 seventh inning and end it early.