Duke edges Rider to get one win away from advancing
Blue Devils score run in top of ninth inning, hold off Rider in bottom half
Duke scored a run in the first and ninth innings and its pitching staff limited Rider to one run in between.
And now the Blue Devils are one win away from reaching the super regional round of the NCAA baseball championship.
Duke beat Rider 2-1 in a tight, thrilling winner’s bracket game on Saturday night at Springs Brooks Stadium.
Giovani DiGiacomo doubled to lead off the top of the ninth, moved to third on Tyler Albright’s sac bunt, and scored on Damon Lux’s sacrifice fly to centerfield.
The Blue Devils (37-21) move into the advantageous spot of the regional and Rider drops into an elimination game against host and top-seed Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers beat UNC Wilmington earlier Saturday in an elimination game.
Duke will play the winner of Sunday’s early game at 6 p.m. tomorrow, and a win would put the Blue Devils in the super regionals against the winner of the Charlottesville regional (where Virginia is in the driver's seat at 2-0).
Jay Beshears hit a two-out solo homer in the first inning and that was Duke’s only run until the ninth.
Rider (36-20) put two runners on in the bottom of the ninth against Fran Oschell III, but he struck out Jordan Erbe to end the game.
Oschell was part of a monster effort from Duke’s pitching staff that required five pitchers, none of whom faced more than nine batters.
Andrew Healy and Owen Proksch pitched the first four innings, taking two each, and held Rider off the board. Adam Boucher pitched a scoreless fifth, and Charlie Bielenson gave up an unearned run in the sixth before pitching a scoreless seventh.
Oschell (5-0) recorded a 1-2-3 eighth but walked two batters in the ninth. They reached second and third before Oschell ended the game.
Coastal Carolina 12, UNC Wilmington 2
Earlier Saturday, Coastal Carolina jumped out to a four-run lead on Graham Barton’s grand slam in the first inning and that was essentially it in this elimination game.
Caden Bodine added a two-run homer in the fourth, and Coastal Carolina put the game further out of reach with a three-run sixth.
Riley Eikhoff (3-1) pitched a complete game for the Chanticleers, allowing six hits and no walks. He had six strikeouts.