It’s going to have to be Monday for Duke baseball.
Coastal Carolina used two big innings to edge Duke 8-6 Sunday evening in Conway to send that regional to a winner-take-all finale Monday, with a Super Regional berth at stake.
This came hours after Coastal eliminated Rider 13-5 to stay alive in the double-elimination tournament.
It looked like we were in for a slug-fest of epic proportions early on. Jason White got the start for Duke and it would be an understatement to say he struggled. A couple of hit batters helped load the bases for Graham Brown, with two outs. White got ahead 0-2 but Brown deposited the next pitch into the right-field stands and it was 4-0.
Duke returned the favor in the top of the second. Alex Stone led off with a home run, then two singles and a hit batter later Damon Lux homered and Duke was up 5-4.
Lux’s grand slam was hit off reliever Bryce Shaffer, who came into the game with an earned run average just under 7. Was this the beginning of a Duke onslaught?
Nope. Shaffer settled down and Duke’s potent bats went silent. The Chanticleers got the equalizer in the fourth on another two-out hit, a double by Payton Eeles.
Meanwhile Duke got one hit, a single, from the third through the seventh inning.
The bottom of the seventh was a disaster for Duke. A single and a triple gave Coastal the lead and sent Owen Proksch to the showers. Charlie Beilinson came in and surrendered another bomb, this one to Derek Bender and it was 8-5.
Bender’s blast came after Duke rather mangled a foul popup that should have been caught.
Duke ended its scoring drought in the eighth with Stone’s second home run of the evening, Duke’s third of the game and ninth of the tournament.
Duke got two men on later in the inning off Teddy Sharkey but came up empty and got a lead-off single in the ninth but likewise came up empty.
Duke was unable to score a single run through any mechanism other than the long ball, which sometimes works, sometimes not so much.
Duke used six pitchers, Coastal three. But Coastal used two in the Rider opener, so maybe that’s a wash for Monday, especially considering the way Pollard and pitching coach Brady Kirkpatrick have managed their staff this season.
Fran Oschell III should be rested for Duke and James Tallon hasn’t pitched at all this weekend. Of course, the best bullpens work better with a lead to protect so that opener, whoever he might be, needs to do more than just get deep into the bullpen. He needs to get deep into the bullpen with a lead.
Another 6 P.M. start Monday. Chris Pollard said “we have a ton of respect for their staff and their program. Just two really good clubs, playing really hard with a lot on the line. I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight. I just can’t wait for six o’clock tomorrow to hurry up and get here.”
Coastal has a good hitting team and I'm not sure Duke's pitching can hold them down. We'll have to score plenty of runs to win this one and it looks like it'll have to be by the long ball.
GoDuke!