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Duke Baseball: Blue Devils avoid last inning disaster, hold on to beat A&M

By Kevin Connelly

BALTIMORE, MD - JULY 27: A detailed view of Franklin batting gloves as the Tampa Bay Rays play the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on July 27, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MD - JULY 27: A detailed view of Franklin batting gloves as the Tampa Bay Rays play the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on July 27, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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The Duke Baseball team flexed its muscles in a major way in its Opening Round game in the Morgantown Regional.

Power hitting and power pitching led the way for the Duke Blue Devils in its first game of the NCAA Baseball Tournament at the Morgantown Regional, defeating Texas A&M 8-5.

The No. 3 seed Blue Devils were facing the No. 2 seed Texas A&M Aggies and things could have sputtered in the first inning but the Blue Devils were able to bear down and get the job done.

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After being set down in order by Texas A&M ace, John Doxakis, the Aggies had its first two batters reach base.

A sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third with one out, but Duke starter Ben Gross was able to strike out the next two Aggies to keep the game scoreless.

The pitchers traded scoreless innings until the fourth when the Blue Devils had back to back singles followed by a 3-run blast to left off the bat of Erikson Nichols, who finished the afternoon 3-for-4 with three RBI.

A Chris Crabtree double came on the heels of the long ball and after a wild pitch allowed Duke’s designated hitter to advance to third, he used his base running prowess to beat a throw home with the infield in on a RJ Schreck RBI single.

Duke chased Doxakis after seven innings, tagging him for four runs and six hits, but he was able to strike out nine.

The Aggies were able to manufacture a run in the bottom of the fifth inning and after two more frames of scoreless baseball, Duke was able to put another four-spot on the board in the top of the eight innings thanks to a pinch-hit 3-run home run by Rudy Maxwell.

While the Blue Devils offense was a major story against a stout Texas A&M pitching staff, Gross was gross on the mound this afternoon.

The senior tossed seven strong innings, allowing just the one run on four hits, walked two and stuck out five, but none bigger than those two K’s in the first inning.

Despite the seven run lead, Chris Pollard still opted to use shutdown bullpen arm Thomas Girard for the final six outs and after setting down the Aggies in order in the eight Texas A&M was able to get to the closer in the ninth, plating four runs.

Matt Dockman was forced to come in and record the final two outs for the Blue Devils to advance Duke into the Winners Bracket of the Morgantown Regional.

Duke will play the winner of the West Virginia vs. Fordham game, which will take place later on Friday night. The next time the Blue Devils will be on the field is on Saturday at 7:00pm EST and that game can be seen on Watch ESPN.

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