The Duke Baseball team had a big Sunday to snap a rare three game losing streak and have a historic series win.
It wasn’t the best start to the week for the Duke Baseball team.
Coming off of a series win in Florida against Penn State, the Blue Devils hosted a rare mid-week two game series against the University of Pennsylvania.
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The Blue Devils dropped the first game of the series in heartbreaking fashion, 7-6, in 11 innings.
Looking to avoid its first series loss of the season, the Blue Devils were back on the field against UPenn on Wednesday, but it was another heartbreaker for the Blue Devils.
Tied at one going into the ninth inning, Penn was able to score two runs to catapult themselves to a 3-1 win over Duke, sweeping the two game series and handing the Blue Devils its first series loss of the year.
Duke would have to pick up the pieces quickly as the Blue Devils were headed to Charlottesville to face the Virginia Cavaliers in the first ACC series of the season.
The three game series was supposed to start on Friday, but Mother Nature had other ideas, dumping snow on Disaroon Park.
The series was altered to one game on Saturday and then a doubleheader on Sunday.
Duke continued its skid on Saturday afternoon, getting pounded by Virginia 11-3 in the first game of the series, dropping the Blue Devils record to 9-5.
Game One of the doubleheader was a nail biter on Sunday afternoon.
The Blue Devils struck for runs in the first two innings behind RBI from Chris Crabtree and Erikson Nichols as Duke led 2-0 early.
That’s all the scoring Duke would do in this game, but an outstanding perforce on the mound from Bryce Jarvis (2-0) and Hunter Davis (1), led the Blue Devils to a 2-1 victory.
Jarvis threw seven innings, surrendering six hits and allowing one unearned run, while waking two and striking out four.
Davis picked up his first save of the year by record the six-out save, allowing just one hit, two walks, and striking out one.
In Game Two of the doubleheader it was the Matt Mervis show. Mervis (1-0) picked up the victory for the Blue Devils by throwing one and one-third inning allowing one run on five hits.
At the plate, Mervis picked up 2 RBI behind a two-run home run in the third inning in Duke’s 8-6 victory.
Matt Mervis had one of three home runs on the afternoon for the Blue Devils, as Chris Crabtree left the ballpark on the first pitch of the game and then the big blow came in the seventh inning when Rudy Maxwell blasted a grand-slam.
Thomas Girard (2) picked up the save for the Blue Devils after pitching one and one-third innings not allowing a hit, walking one, and striking out one.
Not only did the series victory and doubleheader sweep get the Blue Devils back on track in the win column, but it was also the program’s first series win in Charlottesville since 1968.
Duke is now 11-5 on the season and 2-1 in the ACC with a long home-stand upcoming, starting with a mid-week game on Tuesday against East Carolina and a three game weekend series at home against Louisville.
All games are scheduled to be at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park this week.