CHARLOTTE – Starting the first game of the ACC tournament in a five-run hole was less than ideal for Duke.

What was ideal was scoring the next nine runs in an 11-8 win over Virginia Tech on Tuesday night at Truist Field.

“Just proud of our guys, I thought we did a good job of staying in the fight,” coach Chris Pollard said. “It wasn’t the best game or the cleanest game we played all year. We gave up a lot of free offense to a good offense. Virginia Tech can really hit and generate offense.

“I thought our offense just got better and better as the game went along.”

Duke (36-18) didn’t trail for long, as Virginia Tech (32-21) scored five runs in the top of the second inning and the Blue Devils responded with a six-spot in the bottom of the third.

That rally started with Devin Obee’s triple — Duke’s first baserunner — and half of Duke’s runs came on Zac Morris’ three-run home run. The other three runs came with two outs, first with Logan Bravo singling home Ben Miller, and then freshman Chase Krewson coming through with the go-ahead two-run single.

“I thought the two two-out at-bats by Logan Bravo and Chase Krewson back-to-back in the third to give us the lead really gave us a lot of momentum,” Pollard said.

The win sets up a winner-is-in situation on Thursday night when Duke plays N.C. State, the No. 3 seed in Pool C. The Wolfpack plays Virginia Tech on Wednesday night, but because of pool play tiebreakers, that game won’t factor into who advances out of the pool.

After Krewson’s go-ahead single, a pair of defensive plays were key to Duke maintaining that slim lead.

VT had runners at the corners with one out in the fourth when the Blue Devils changed pitchers, bringing in Tim Noone — already the fourth of the game. On his second pitch, David McCann lined out to Miller at third base, who then tagged out the runner for a double play.

In the fifth, it was Krewson preserving the lead he’d established.

Ben Watson’s one-out single went through the left side of the infield and Carson DeMartini, from second base, was trying to score. Krewson threw a one-hop strike to senior catcher Alex Stone, who applied a harder-than-it-looks swipe tag on a diving DeMartini.

“How often do you see that swipe tag need to be made and that ball kicks just a little bit out of the glove because you’re moving toward the tag?” Pollard said. “Strong hands by Alex Stone right there in that moment.”

With Krewson on one end of the pendulum, having a good at-bat and then a good defensive play, Stone needed to complete his half of that swing.

In the bottom of the fifth, Stone hammered a solo homer to give Duke some breathing room. It gave him a 13-game hitting streak, during which he has 14 extra base hits and 24 RBI.

“I think that’s real, man. How often do you see a guy that makes a great play defensively come up and have a big hit later in the ballgame, or vice versa?” Pollard said. “Both of those guys made great defensive plays and had big swings for us.”

Duke added more cushion to the lead with Morris’ second homer, a two-run blast in the sixth that made it a 9-5 game.

On the first homer, he was looking for a fastball and got it; the second was a slider, with him looking fastball again and adjusting.

“I’m always going up to the plate sitting on the fastball. First at-bat, I was fouling off a couple of tough pitches and I ended up getting a pitch I could do something with,” Morris said. “Was seeing the ball well, it was just one of those days for me.”

And soon enough, it was one of those days like so many others for Duke when it has a relatively tight lead.

The Blue Devils went to closer Charlie Beilenson in the seventh, after VT put runners at the corners via walk and single to start the inning.

Beilenson gave up a sacrifice fly and struck out two to end that threat. He gave up a two-run homer in the eighth — after Duke tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the seventh, RBI coming from Bravo and Wallace Clark — and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 12th save of the season.

Beilenson has pitched 55 2/3 innings this season; that’s one out less than starter Jonathan Santucci for the team high.

Pollard reiterated what he said on the ACC Network in-game interview, that he didn’t want to use Beilenson that much.

“But it is such a luxury and I don’t know if I’ll ever have it again in my coaching career of having a closer you can run in there in the seventh inning and he can get nine outs,” Pollard said. “And he’s done it for us so many times.”

That’s what makes it so easy to turn to Beilenson.

“Been there before, happened a few times this year,” Beilenson said. “Also getting the day off (Wednesday) means I can pretty much bounce back no matter what for Thursday.

“Whatever they want, I’m ready for it.”

Ryan Higgins started for Duke and mowed through the first four batters he faced, striking out the last three.

But he lost the strike zone and walked four straight, the last one pushing across the game’s first run. Higgins was relieved by James Tallon, who gave up a deep flyout to the wall in right field — anything in the air to that side of the field has a chance — and VT got a second run, but Duke got to within an out of escaping the situation.

The damage was done, though, with DeMartini hitting a three-run homer that nearly left the ballpark in right field.

Walks were a trend for most of the night by Duke’s staff. The Blue Devils’ six-man pitching effort combined for nine walks — Beilenson even walked one — and a hit batter.

EXTRA BASES: This was Morris’ third multi-homer game of the season. … Duke has won five straight ACC tournament games in Charlotte, given the Blue Devils won four here in 2021 to win the championship and didn't qualify for the 2022 tournament (last year's event was in Durham). ... Pollard said that Thursday night’s pitching plan against N.C. State would be “some combination, we think, of (Andrew) Healy and Kyle Johnson.” … In line with that pitching plan for Thursday night’s game, Pollard said the staff really likes the way Santucci is “rounding back into form.” If that progress continues and if the Blue Devils win on Thursday night, their ace who’s missed the last two weeks could be an option to start a semifinal game on Saturday.