Duke Baseball: Blue Devils avoid catastrophic collapse, sweep Clemson

The Duke Baseball team almost blew a six run lead, but a strong push offensively and elite defense led the Blue Devils to a sweep of the Clemson Tigers.

Needing two or three wins minimum this week, the Duke Baseball team capped off a perfect week with a heart-stopping thriller in the finale of a three game series with Clemson in a 9-8 victory.

After beating Texas Tech on Tuesday and taking the first two games against the Tigers this weekend, things looked to be excellent for the Blue Devils as Duke led 8-2 headed to the bottom of the fifth.

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Cooper Stinson seemed to be in control, but running out of gas in the fifth, He gave up a solo home run, then loaded the bases, and then hit a batter with the bases loaded, Matt Dockman came into replace him

Dockman allowed a grand slam to the first batter he faced, which tied the game up at eight with all the momentum on the side of the Tigers.

However, one of the heroes from Saturday’s win, Jack Carey, came in and settled things down for the Blue Devils, throwing one and one-third scoreless and hitless innings, issuing one walk and striking out two.

The teams traded scoreless frames for three innings, but after Carey, Hunter Davis (1-2) came in and continued to dominate on the mound for the Blue Devils.

Davis finished the game, throwing two and two-thirds innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out two Tigers.

Offensively, captain Kennie Taylor started things off in the first inning with a solo homer.

Rudy Maxwell knocked in an RBI in the second inning in addition to Joey Loperfido‘s two run home run, to give Duke a 4-1 lead in the second inning.

The Blue Devils were able to take advantage of sloppy Clemson defense in the third inning and then in the fifth, a Chase Cheek two RBI triple and Ethan Murray RBI single, put Duke up 8-2 before the bottom of the fifth collapse.

Matt Mervis delivered the go ahead solo home run in the top of the ninth, but that would be a moot point if it wasn’t for the defense of Kyle Gallagher in left field this afternoon.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Tigers had runners on second and third with just one out. A fly ball to left was caught by Gallagher and he threw a bullet to home to get the runner trying to tag-up for a double play to end the inning.

Then in the ninth with Duke up by one run, a long fly ball was hit to left, and Gallagher was able to time his jump perfectly and was able to snatch the ball over the wall for the first out of the inning, keeping Duke’s one run lead.

The last out of the game was a relatively easy catch for Gallagher in left once again, but it was inches away from sailing over the wall for a potential two-run walk-off home run.

This was Duke’s first series sweep of Clemson since 1948 and it moves the Blue Devils to 24-16 on the season and 11-10 in the ACC as the Blue Devils are back in action this week starting with a rematch with North Carolina Central on Tuesday who Duke defeated on April 9 7-5, and then a three game series in Massachuttes against Boston College starting on Friday evening.