Duke Baseball: Blue Devils Save Season Again with Elimination Game Win

Duke Baseball just loves elimination games as they win yet another win or go home game to keep its season alive.

Same story, different day for the Duke Blue Devils. They stave off elimination for the fifth time in the last week and live to see another day.

While the Duke bats were on fire tonight against Texas Tech, the story of the game for the Blue Devils is Graeme Stinson.

Stinson, normally used out of the bullpen, was the starter tonight for the Blue Devils after Duke’s lack of success using its starter. Stinson was excellent in the elimination games against Georgia and it carried over to tonight.

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Stinson was spectacular tonight, throwing six shutout innings, scattering five hits, and striking out six batters.

The Duke offense came alive in the fourth inning when the Blue Devils crossed the plate four times.

Joey Loperfido got Duke started with, clearing the bases with an RBI triple putting Duke up 2-0. Max Miller then brought Loperfido home with an RBI double, giving the Blue Devils a three-run lead.

The hero of the Athens Regional Chris Crabtree got in on the party doubling home Miller to put the Blue Devils up 4-0.

After a perfect top of the fifth inning from Stinson, the Duke bats went back to work in the bottom half of the fifth.

Zack Kone drove in Chris Proctor to extend the Blue Devils lead to five but after a Griffin Conine single and a walk to Loperfido, Kennie Taylor got in on the party singling up the middle.

Max Miller dug back into the batter’s box and ripped a triple down the right-field line that cleared the bases and put the Blue Devils up 9-0.

Jimmy Herron sent one deep enough into the outfield to bring home Miller and Duke was up 10-0 at the end of five innings.

The Red Raiders thought they were on the board in the sixth inning but a replay review reversed the call in favor of the Blue Devils and the score remained 10-0.

However, the win could be costly for the Blue Devils as they had a number of injury scares throughout the game.

Max Miller was hit with a pitch on the wrist, Joey Loperfido collied with the Texas Tech catcher trying to score on a single and appeared to hurt his knee, and Kennie Taylor pulled up lame in center field trying to track down a long fly ball.

Miller and Loperfido remained in the game with no effects from their injuries, but Taylor’s injury seemed to be more serious. Taylor had to leave the game as he was unable to put much pressure on his right leg in what appeared to be a right hamstring injury.

Chase Cheek replaced Taylor, but Jimmy Herron moved to center field as Cheek played left field.

Head Coach Chris Pollard said during the game that reliever Bryce Jarvis was unavailable in Game 2 due to an illness but hoped he would be available for Game 3.

Texas Tech was able to get a run across in the seventh and the eight innings but another RBI single from Loperfido would push the Duke lead to 11-2.

The Duke Blue Devils and the Texas Tech Red Raiders will face off one more time tomorrow at 4:00 pm ET on ESPN2 in a winner take all Game 3. The winner will move on to the College World Series and the losers season will be over. As the high seed, Texas Tech will be the home team just like in Game 1.

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