DURHAM – Things just went awry with pitching and defense in one inning for Duke’s baseball team in a series opener against Georgia Tech on Thursday night at Jack Coombs Field.

That seventh inning proved too costly, as did the Blue Devils’ failure to deliver big hits with traffic on the basepaths for most of the night, in a 7-6 loss to the Yellow Jackets.

“I thought we pitched great eight out of the nine innings. Credit Georgia Tech, I thought that they did a good job putting together some quality at-bats there in the seventh against our best arm,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said, speaking specifically of reliever Reid Easterly.

“We did a great job of battling our way back in the ballgame against their best reliever and we’ve gotta do a better job of pushing that tying run across there in the ninth inning,” Pollard continued.

Picking things up where they ended, Duke (35-17, 16-12 ACC) got a leadoff double by Sam Harris in the bottom of the ninth. After two failed bunt attempts, Macon Winslow singled up the middle — and Harris was held at third by assistant coach Derek Simmons.

Jake Berger’s drag bunt down the first base line would’ve scored Harris, but reliever Mason Patel waited long enough for the ball to roll into foul territory a few feet in front of first base.

“I thought it had stayed fair and I didn’t even realize until he went over and picked it up that it was foul,” Pollard said.

Berger hit into a fielder’s choice after that, with Harris stalled at third. That brought up the top of Duke’s lineup — Wallace Clark popped out in foul territory near Duke’s bullpen, not deep enough for Harris to tag, and AJ Gracia popped out on the first pitch to end the game.

“We’ve got three chances to score a guy from third base, we didn’t get it done. That’s disappointing,” Pollard said. “We left 14 guys on and didn’t do a good job with our situational offense there at the end, and that was the difference.”

The reason it was a one-run deficit in the ninth was because the Blue Devils scored twice in the eighth, on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch. But they also left the bases loaded in that inning.

Duke was 6-for-20 with runners on base and the only hit that drove in runs was Berger’s two-run home run in the second inning. That made it a 4-2 game after each team scored two runs in the first inning.

Granted, the lack offense wasn’t the focus for most of the night.

After Owen Proksch allowed two GT runs early, he locked up the Yellow Jackets offense — with the help of a few stellar defensive plays.

Proksch went six innings, exiting after a leadoff single in the seventh. Before that hit, he had retired 11 of 12 batters — which included a great play by him to cover first base on a diving stop by Berger at second base, a couple of hit-robbing plays by Clark at shortstop, and a running catch by Tyler Albright in right field near the wall.

“He was awesome. Awesome,” Pollard said of Proksch. “You could tell by some of the swings they had after he came out just how good his outing was.”

Easterly (8-2) gave up a bunt single and a long single that loaded the bases. After a strikeout, he plunked Drew Burress to force in GT’s first run since the first inning. And then Kent Schmidt provided the big blow, a bases-clearing double that gave GT a 6-4 lead. The Yellow Jackets added a run on Alex Hernandez’s single — that was his third RBI of the game, having hit a two-run homer in the first.

Patel (11-1) entered with one out in the sixth and finished the game for GT, going 3 2/3 and allowing five hits, two runs and two walks, with five strikeouts.