Murray State evens Super Regional with Duke

19-9 your final

Duke baseball is going to have to wait longer to punch that ticket to Omaha. Maybe a day, maybe longer.

Duke had a chance today but those big Murray State bats we saw last week at Ole Miss resurfaced today against a Duke staff that looked woefully over-matched.

The final was 19-9.

Duke was the visiting team today and struck early, solo homers by A.J. Gracia and Ben Miller in the top of the first.

The Blue Devils went with Kyle Johnson on the mound, the two-way player who keyed Duke’s win in game one as a center fielder. But also the pitcher who pitched so well last weekend against Georgia, two runs in five innings.

Duke was in pretty good shape if that Kyle Johnson showed up.

He didn’t. Johnson didn’t have good stuff, didn’t have good command. He allowed three runs in the first, two in the second and the first run of Murray State’s five-run fourth.

Gabe Nard allowed the other four.

Duke almost climbed out of that huge hole. Trailing 10-3 going into the top of the sixth, Duke scored five times, a two-run homer by Ben Rounds, a wild pitch and a two-run homer by Macon Winslow.

It was 10-8.

Duke had all the momentum, if they could just find someone, anyone who could control Murray State’s offense.

They couldn’t. It became something of a revolving door in the seventh as the Racers scored nine times against four pitchers.

Where does this leave Duke for Monday?

First, color me convinced. Murray State’s offense is for real.

Freshman Henry Zatkowski is the presumptive starter. He was solid last week against Oklahoma State, allowing two runs in 4.2 innings before turning it over to the bullpen.

I’d take that again in the figurative New York minute. Zatkowski simply has to get deep into the game with Duke in range or this could get out of hand in a hurry.

Then that bullpen has to perform. Reid Easterly went three innings in game one, didn’t pitch in game two. James Tallon hasn’t pitched yet. As far as I know he’s healthy. He pitched last weekend against Georgia. Gavin Brown and Edward Hart each threw a scoreless inning today, although Hart fell apart in that fateful seventh. Both should be fresh. Maybe game one starter Owen Prosch has something left in the tank.

Much of the rest of the bullpen struggled today and that’s putting it mildly. But relief pitchers are like cornerbacks; they have to have a short memory.

Duke also needs a cleaner game defensively. Chris Pollard has prioritized defense from day one at Duke and seeing Duke commit three errors in a big game is both unusual and disturbing.

Murray State’s offense is too good to give them extra outs.

Got to clean that up.

Duke isn’t winning this title game 3-2. It’s hard to criticize an offense that just scored nine runs but if Duke doesn’t get a quality start from Zatkowski, Duke may need a football score to pull this one off.

Still, Duke is at home and the coin has to come up heads sometime. Under Pollard Duke has had six chances to clinch a College World Series berth with a win and has six losses. The seventh time is the charm said no one ever. The law of averages isn’t going to help. We’ll see if Duke is up to the challenge.