Duke rallies to win middle game, series over Miami

DURHAM – Duke went from being in control of Saturday’s game against visiting Miami to tied with the Hurricanes in the matter of a couple of innings.

So goes life in ACC games.

What mattered was the response, which came in the form of a leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh by freshman AJ Gracia and Alex Stone’s go-ahead RBI single that delivered a 5-4 win at Jack Coombs Field.

“It’s ACC baseball, everyone is going to fight back. The game is really never over,” Gracia said after going 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in one of Duke’s early runs. “Me going to lead off that inning, just trying to get on base.

“Did pretty well with the double but really just a walk, hit by pitch, anything to just get on base there to get us going.”

Gracia’s double was of the ground rule variety, one-hopping over right fielder Lucas Costello’s head and over the fence. On a day with a whipping breeze, that was as close as anybody came to a home run.

“The field was playing huge today. I hit that one pretty good,” Gracia said with a laugh. “We’ll take a double, definitely. We’ll take it.”

Logan Bravo walked, and Miami (15-15, 6-8 ACC) brought in Brian Walters to face Stone. Duke’s senior catcher laced the first pitch off of the pitcher’s rubber, and Gracia raced in from second to score easily.

“That was a terrific at-bat by Alex Stone of knowing to be on time with the plus velocity from Walters and didn’t miss it, hit that ball back up the middle,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said. “Charlie Beilenson was really good from there and handled the rest.”

Well, who else?

Duke’s closer entered the weekend tied for the national lead in saves, but through two games he’s picked up two wins. Beilenson (2-2) pitched the last 2 1/3 innings, giving up two hits and recording two strikeouts.

The iron-armed sixth-year pitcher has appeared in Duke’s last four games — both games this weekend, Tuesday’s win over Liberty, and last Saturday’s series finale against Virginia. The outing against Virginia is the only one in which he’s given up runs; Beilenson has pitched a combined eight innings, allowing one run on six hits and one walk, with eight strikeouts in this span.

“I think he’s just a guy that, he’s more effective and he feels better when he throws more,” Pollard said. “We had decided up, down, up big, down big, didn’t matter, he was going to pitch on Tuesday because we felt like that would help him be more effective this weekend.

“And you can see, his stuff over the past two days has been as good as it’s been all year.”

Duke (23-8, 8-6) got a strong start from Kyle Johnson, his first weekend start since the first ACC series (March 10 at Wake Forest). Johnson pitched three scoreless innings, allowing one hit and two walks, and struck out six.

Ryan Higgins followed him and retired the first six batters he faced, getting Duke through the fifth inning with a 4-0 lead. But Miami’s offense broke through against him with four hits, and two runs, in the sixth.

Jimmy Romano ended that threat with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Jack Scanlon. James Tallon entered for the seventh and gave up two runs on two hits (both doubles) and a walk; Beilenson got the Blue Devils out of the inning with the game tied.

EXTRA BASES: Duke’s Ben Miller has a 12-game hitting streak. … Gracia was the only left-handed hitter in Duke’s lineup against lefty Rafe Schlesinger. The freshman outfielder struck out in his first at-bat, and then had two singles, the double in the seventh, and walked in the eighth. … Stone also had a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4. He’s raised his average from .237 to .266 since March 23, hitting 11-for-31 in that span. … Duke’s next two ACC series are on the road, at Pittsburgh (April 12-14) and Virginia Tech (April 19-21), before the Blue Devils play Florida State at home at the end of the month (April 26-28).