DURHAM – A game that initially looked like both teams would score double-digit runs turned into a defensive stalemate.

It spelled an 8-5 loss for Duke against visiting Georgia Tech on Sunday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and is the Blue Devils’ first ACC series loss since March 23-25 at UNC.

It’s not exactly the propulsion into next week’s series at Miami that Duke needed — though the Coastal Division championship is still within reach.

“I mean, credit Georgia Tech,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said. “They made some pitches on us. We had some traffic on the bases. … It was a back-and-forth game and it looked like it was going to be whoever was batting last, looked like it was going to be one of those 15-14-type games.

“We had chances, they had chances to create some gap. But I thought both teams made pitches over the second half of the ballgame and that’s our sport.”

Duke (34-16, 15-11 ACC) scored all five of its runs in the first three innings. The Blue Devils stranded at least one runner in each of its last six at-bats, including loading the bases in the seventh.

The missed opportunities take Duke out of first place in the Coastal Division.

Miami won at Pittsburgh on Sunday, winning two of three in that series. That means the Hurricanes enter next weekend with a ½-game lead on Duke for the Costal Division crown, which would result in the No. 2 seed in the following week’s ACC tournament.

Virginia is back into the mix, having swept Louisville this weekend. The Cavaliers are tied with Miami atop the Coastal and are at Georgia Tech next weekend.

So the possibilities are there, with the Blue Devils facing one of the teams ahead of them in the standings and keeping an eye on Atlanta.

“That’s a challenge that we welcome,” Pollard said of next week. “Nobody had a lot of expectations for this team before the season started and now we’re in a position on the final weekend of the ACC to go and win a Coastal Division championship.

“And that’s pretty special. That’s a credit to these guys and what they’ve done in the year.”

GT (30-21, 12-15) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and scored at least one run in each of the first five innings. Angelo Dispigna’s three-run homer in the first and Drew Compton’s solo shot in the third were the only homers in that opening burst by the Yellow Jackets.

Duke had answers in the early innings and it was 5-5 after three. Alex Mooney scored from second base on a dropped third strike in the first, and Giovani DiGiacomo had an RBI groundout in the second.

The Blue Devils scored three runs in the third to tie it, with Alex Stone extending his hitting streak to 24 games on an RBI double, and then a couple of productive outs that scored two more runs.

That’s where Duke’s offense screeched to a halt, though.

“We felt like we’d stem the tide and kind of slow their offense at some point,” Pollard said. “It was probably an inning too late. … As good as our offense has been (in) innings 4-8, you think our offense has a chance to score and get back in it.”

What turned out to be the winning run was Kristian Campbell’s one-out single in the fourth, and GT added two runs in the fifth on Compton’s RBI double and a bases-loaded double play.

Duke put runners at first and second with one out in the bottom of the fifth, but a strikeout and groundout ended that threat.

Ryan Higgins and Aidan Weaver (3-3) were charged with all eight of GT’s runs; Duke’s Gabriel Nard, Adam Boucher, Aaron Beasley and Jimmy Romano pitched the final five innings to keep the Blue Devils within striking distance.

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Here’s a recap of the other two games in the series:

On Friday, GT jumped out to a four-run lead in the first inning and led 7-2 midway through the fourth.

The Yellow Jackets got a two-run double by Compton and a two-run homer by John Giesler in the first. Duke answered with a couple of runs in the bottom of the first with Stone’s RBI single and MJ Metz’s sac fly.

GT got a three-run homer by Jake DeLeo in the fourth. Again, Duke answered with two runs in the form of Tyler Albright’s two-run homer.

Duke got four hits and put seven runners on base in the last five innings, but the only other run was scored on a groundout in the seventh.

Alex Gow (3-3) gave up the first four runs and held GT scoreless in the second and third. Nard gave up three runs in the fourth. Charlie Bielenson, Owen Proksch and Romano combined for the final five innings, with Romano giving up a solo homer to Dispigna in the ninth as the only run charged to that trio.

On Saturday, things got wobbly in the ninth before the Blue Devils held on to even the series.

Duke took a 6-1 lead into the ninth. James Tallon got a strikeout to begin the inning but the second batter reached on a throwing error by Mooney. Tallon got a second out before Stephen Reid’s RBI double, and then Tallon hit a batter and gave up a three-run homer to Compton.

Tallon closed the door by striking out Giesler. All four runs in the ninth were unearned.

Duke got a couple of early runs on Stone’s RBI single in the first and Giovani DiGiacomo’s RBI double in the second.

Albright hit a solo homer in the fourth and drove in a run with a single in the eighth. In between, DiGiacomo hit a two-run homer in the sixth.

Andrew Healy (3 1/3) and Bielenson (2 2/3) combined to pitch the first six innings for the Blue Devils, allowing one run on five hits and two walks. Fran Oschell III pitched a scoreless seventh before giving way to Tallon.