Duke Scores In The Bottom Of The Ninth To Defeat Washington, 4-3

Friday, February 23

Greenville, N.C. (East Carolina)

1:00 PM

Duke University

Washington

Duke Scores In The Bottom Of The Ninth To Defeat Washington, 4-3

2/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

By: Duke Sports Information

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The Duke Blue Devils defeated the Washington Huskies, 4-3, on Friday afternoon at Clark-LeClair Stadium, scoring on an RBI groundout in the bottom of the ninth. The Blue Devils improve to 8-0 on the season while the Huskies, who won 36 games a year ago, fall to 0-4.

With the score knotted at 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth, shortstop Gabriel Saade hit a fly ball to center that was out of reach of a diving Andy Lentz. Saade, running all the way on the play, slide in safely at second base for a double. With second baseman Ryan McCurdy facing a 3-2 count, Saade broke for third on the pitch. McCurdy grounded out to second but Saade, who was waved home on the grounder, beat the throw to the plate, sliding under the catcher's tag to score the winning run.

Duke took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Third baseman Brett Bartles drew a walk to lead off the inning before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt by catcher Matt Williams. Two batters later, left fielder Alexander Hassan reached on a throwing error by Washington third baseman Matt Hague. The throw from Hague skipped past first baseman Curt Rindal, allowing Bartles to score from second.

The Blue Devils added a run in the bottom of the fifth to take a 2-0 lead. Hassan drew a one-out walk to start the inning. Two batters later, McCurdy singled to left center, moving Hassan to third. Center fielder Jonathan Anderson then laced an RBI-single to left field to score Hassan.

Washington took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh. After Hague led off the inning with a single to center, Rindal sent a two-run homer over the left field wall to tie the game at two runs apiece. Two batters later, shortstop Danny Cox lined a solo shot down the right field line, giving the Huskies the lead.

Duke tied the score at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth. Right fielder Jimmy Gallagher reached second on a two-base throwing error by Hague to begin the inning. First baseman Nate Freiman followed with a single to right to give the Blue Devils runners on the corners. Gallagher then scored on a fielder's choice to make it a 3-3 ballgame.

Saade went 2-for-4 on the day to pace the Blue Devils at the plate. Anderson and McCurdy both added a hit and an RBI and Bartles had an RBI for Duke.

Anderson (1-0) picked up his first win of the season, pitching a scoreless top of the ninth. Duke starter Tony Bajoczky, who had four strikeouts on the day, held the Huskies to two runs on four hits in 6.1 innings of work. Bajoczky limited Washington to only one hit through the first six innings.

The Blue Devils will face St. John's tomorrow at 11 a.m. before taking on East Carolina on Sunday. Sunday's game time will be decided upon on Saturday depending on Sunday's forecast. Duke returns to Jack Coombs Field on Tuesday for a 3 p.m. game against North Carolina A&T.

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