Duke Baseball: Blue Devils pound Vanderbilt into the soggy Nashville turf

The Duke Baseball team unleashed its fury on the Vanderbilt Commodores in Game 1 of the Nashville Super Regional on Friday night.

After a three hour rain and lightning delay the Blue Devils and the Commodores finally took the field and it was Duke who struck first, but not before the team from Durham had to get out of yet another sticky first inning situation.

In the three games in the Morgantown Regional, escaping the first inning became a tradition for Duke and it carried over to the Nashville Super Regional.

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The first two batters in the Vandy order reached on singles, but a fielders choice and two straight fly outs got Duke starter Ben Gross out of things.

Erikson Nichols would get Duke on the board, plating two runs on what could have been an error, but nonetheless less, the Blue Devils took the early lead before Vanderbilt would draw even in the bottom half of the inning.

Duke began to create separation in the third inning thanks to a three-run blast off the bat of Kyle Gallagher, giving Duke a 6-2 lead.

The Blue Devils added another run in the fourth on a Joey Loperfido RBI single, Vanderbilt would begin to crawl back in the game, scoring three runs over the next three innings.

While Duke would plate an insurance run in the seventh to take an 8-5 lead, the Blue Devils were only getting started, scoring ten, yes ten, runs in the eight inning to crush any hope the Commodores had at a comeback.

In the eruption, Duke only had six hits, but the first ten batters that came to bat in the inning, reached base and scored, giving Duke a 18-5 lead at the end of the frame and it would hold for the remainder of the game.

While the eighth inning put the game away for the Blue Devils, the efforts of Ben Gross and Matt Dockman should not be forgotten as Gross picked up the victory after five and one-third innings pitched, allowing seven hits and five runs, along with five walks but striking out seven in the dangerous Vanderbilt lineup.

In relief of Gross, Dockman tossed one and two-thirds innings of no-hit baseball, walking one and striking out three.

The Blue Devil offense tagged Vanderbilt starter Drake Fellows for seven hits and seven runs, five earned, in just four innings and Duke was able to cut down on its strikeout problem form the Morgantown Regional, only fanning three times against the Vandy ace.

One win away from the College World Series, Duke will turn to Bryce Jarvis, who is coming off a career outing against the West Virginia Mountaineers in eight shutout innings and 11 strikeouts.

Game 2 of the Morgantown Regional is scheduled for 9:00pm EST on ESPNU from Nashville, Tennessee.

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