Duke baseball last undefeated team in Athens

Still need one more

The Duke-Georgia game Saturday evening wasn’t the slugfest I and many others expected. Truth be told I was skeptical that Duke could beat the home team without scoring a lot of runs.

Glad to be proven wrong. Duke had the arms and just enough timely hitting--mostly by the left side of the infield--to pull out a 6-3 win.

Duke gets to sit back and await the outcome of the Oklahoma State-Georgia game Sunday. Hopefully, the game will unfold in such a way that the winner is exhausted.

Because Duke is in the driver’s seat as the only team remaining without a loss. Not a lock by any means. Chickens hatching and all that.

The first star Saturday has to be Duke starter Kyle Johnson, who redeemed a disappointing sophomore season with a masterful effort.

Johnson is a sophomore lefty. He had a great freshman season and spent part of last summer playing for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team. He was a preseason All-American. But he was unable to leverage 2024’s success. After allowing seven runs in 1.1 innings against Cal, his ERA was 9.98.

Slowly but surely Johnson began to regain his stuff. He allowed only one run earned run over four games in 6.2 innings coming into the NCAAs and Pollard trusted him to make his biggest start of the season.

He repaid the trust. Big time.

After allowing a solo shot to Ryland Zaborwski in the second, Johnson retired 12 of the next 13 Georgia batters, the only wobble a hit batter.

Duke seized control in the top of the third when third baseman Ben Miller rifled a three-run homer--welcome back Ben.

Shortstop Wallace Clark made it 4-1 with a fifth-inning solo shot.

Johnson hasn’t pitched more than five innings all season and hasn’t gone more than two since February 28. Asking him to come out for the sixth may have been a bridge too far. Henry Hunter led off with a homer, then a single chased Johnson.

And frankly it got a little hairy. Duke stayed stuck on four runs through the sixth, seven and eighth, while Mark Hindy and then James Tallon worked out of trouble.

Duke finally got some insurance with a pair in the ninth, another solo homer by Clark and an RBI single by Jake Hyde.

Clark went four-for-five and had his second two-homer game of the season; the first was against Radford on May 4.

Tallon allowed a meaningless run in the bottom of the ninth.

What next?

Oklahoma State handily defeated Binghampton in Saturday’s first game and will square off against Georgia in an elimination game.

It’s tempting to see a Georgia win as inevitable. But Oklahoma State hasn’t used either of its star pitchers yet in Athens and there’s not much point in saving Harrison Bodendorf any longer. Cowboys coach Josh Holliday did confirm that Bodendorf will start, with relief ace Sean Youngerman in waiting.

Georgia presumably will be all hands on deck.

The winner will square off against Duke around six. If Duke wins, the regional is over. If Duke loses, Monday awaits.

The winner of this regional plays the winner of the Oxford regional in the Super Regional. Ole Miss, Georgia Tech and Murray State are left and fourth-seed Murray State is the undefeated team left and, well, let’s cross that bridge when and if we come to it.