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Duke baseball: Pitching leads Blue Devils to four straight victories

By Kevin Connelly

HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 22: The game ball is left on the mound prior to Game One of the 2019 World Series between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals at Minute Maid Park on October 22, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 22: The game ball is left on the mound prior to Game One of the 2019 World Series between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals at Minute Maid Park on October 22, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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The Duke Baseball team used elite pitching and timely offense to win six straight games and cap off a perfect week with a series sweep of Cornell.

Chris Pollard and his Duke Blue Devils couldn’t complete the comeback on Opening Day against the Army Black Knights, but since then the Blue Devils have rattled off six straight wins.

Duke closed its opening series against Army with two victories and began a new week on Tuesday afternoon against William & Mary.

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The Blue Devils blanked the Tribe with a workmanlike 5-0 victory thanks to the efforts of Bill Chillari (1-0), Eli Herrick, Matt Dockman, Jack Carey, and Matt Mervis.

Duke then moved onto its second weekend series of the season and Friday afternoon cannot be talked about enough with the perfect game from Bryce Jarvis (1-1) who set a career-high with 15 strikeouts in the first perfect game in Blue Devil history.

Jarvis’ fellow pitchers Cooper Stinson, Matt Dockman, and Thomas Girard combined for another shutout of Cornell in a 2-0 victory for Duke as Ethan Murray recorded the lone RBI for the Blue Devils on a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning and Chris Crabtree scored on a wild pitch in the seventh for the second Duke run of the game.

In the final game of the series, Cornell finally scored a run in the first inning off Jack Carey, making his first career start, but that was all the Big Red were able to muster against the Blue Devils as Duke came away with a 3-1 victory.

The New Jersey native finished his first start after four innings, allowing five hits, one run, two walks, and striking out five.

Jimmy Loper (1-0) picked up the victory as Girard (2) nailed down the save in consecutive days.

The Blue Devils weren’t able to tie things up until the fifth inning when Rudy Maxwell ripped an RBI double.

ALSO READ: Bryce Jarvis tosses perfect game against Cornell

Michael Rothenberg gave Duke the lead with an RBI single in the seventh and Matt Mervis followed that up with an RBI single of his own to give Duke a 3-1 lead in which they would never relinquish.

Duke has won six straight games and in its last five the Blue Devils have allowed just one run entering its matchup with Air Force on Monday afternoon with the first pitch just after 2:00pm EST.

ALSO READ: Assessing Blue Devils, links to past national champions

Following Monday’s game, Duke will head north to Minnesota to compete in the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis to face the Purdue Boilermakers, Minnesota Golden Gophers, and Iowa Hawkeyes from Friday through Sunday.

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