Duke falls short against FSU

DURHAM – All that wound up mattering for Jonathan Santucci were the four runs he gave up in the first inning; not retiring 18 of the next 19 Florida State batters he faced.

And all that wound up mattering for Duke’s Ben Miller were line drives he smoked in the second and ninth innings were outs.

Such is baseball and so went Duke’s 4-2 loss to visiting FSU in the series opener Friday night at Jack Coombs Field.

“I thought it was a really good baseball game. … I thought Jonathan Santucci, that’s the best he’s looked all year. One swing of the bat in the first ended up being the difference in the ballgame,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said, referencing Jaime Ferrer’s three-run homer. “He pitched great, our bullpen did a great job of keeping the ballgame right there within striking distance.

“Ben Miller hit a couple of balls that were probably 105 (mph) off the bat right at people that would’ve been RBIs in both situations and that’s just kind of our sport.”

To start at the end, the situation in the ninth was runners at the corners after Kyle Johnson’s leadoff double and Zac Morris’ one-out single. Miller, 0-for-4 to that point with an 18-game hitting streak on the line, scorched the second pitch from just-entered reliever Connor Hults down the third base line — right at third baseman Cam Smith, who caught the ball with a dive.

“Knew the guy was going to be spinning some breaking balls, so just kind of hooked it down the line a little bit,” Miller said. “In that situation they’re going to be playing no doubles, so he basically was standing right on the line.

“Bad place to hit it, but that happens.”

Alex Stone struck out to end the game, stranding the ninth and 10th runners of the game for Duke (29-13, 13-9 ACC).

Miller was also robbed in the second, when he hit a two-out frozen rope up the middle that hit and knocked off pitcher Jamie Arnold’s glove — with the lefty retrieving the ball and throwing to first.

Arnold (8-1), the frontrunner for ACC pitcher of the year, faced trouble in the first four innings against the Blue Devils and only pitched five. Duke scored in the first and third but stranded four runners in those innings, including a failure to score with runners at second and third and one out in the first.

“I thought we had as good of an offensive approach as anybody’s had against Jamie Arnold all year,” Pollard said.

On the other side of the equation, the only eventful inning FSU had against Santucci was the first; the problem was how damaging that was to the scoreboard.

After a strikeout to start the game, FSU got an infield single by Smith and a first-pitch HBP for James Tibbs III, both of whom entered the game hitting .401. Marco Dinges singled in a run, and then Ferrer lasered a three-run homer over the fence in left field.

So, it was 4-0 after five batters; that was the last hit allowed by Santucci.

Duke’s ace recorded the last two outs of the first and then motored through the next five innings to keep the Blue Devils in the game. The only two baserunners he allowed were on a dropped third strike and an error by Wallace Clark at shortstop.

This wasn’t just the first time Santucci didn’t walk a batter; he had multiple walks in each of his other 10 starts this season.

“Really proud of Tooch for how he responded after the first few batters. He still put together a great start for us,” Miller said. “Offensively, felt like we did a really good job against their starter. He’s been really tough on people all year.

“We did a good job of getting him out of the game and then just couldn’t really capitalize on it against their bullpen. Hopefully we’ll come back tomorrow and do the same thing to their starter and do a little bit better at the end of the game.”

EXTRA BASES: AJ Gracia was 2-for-4 with an RBI double in the first inning. It was his 43rd RBI of the season, which ties the freshman RBI record in Duke history (Joey Loperfido in 2018). … Duke got scoreless innings out of David Boisvert (seventh) and James Tallon (eighth), and then Fran Oschell III and Jimmy Romano combined to record a scoreless ninth, with Romano stranding the bases loaded. … Johnson was 3-for-3, as Duke’s freshman outfielder is now hitting .415. He’ll be the Blue Devils’ starting pitcher for Saturday’s game.