Duke Falls 5-4 At No. 6 Miami In Ninth Inning

Friday, March 13

Miami, Fla.

7:00 PM

Duke University

Miami

Duke Falls 5-4 At No. 6 Miami In Ninth Inning

3/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

By: Duke Sports Information

CORAL GABLES, Fla. ? Scott Lawson drove in the game-winning run with a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth inning to give No. 6 Miami a 5-4 win over Duke Friday evening at Mark Light Field.

Lawson's double to the warning track in right field scored teammate Jonathan Weislow, who started the ninth-inning rally with a one-out single for his first hit of the ball game. The game-winning double capped a comeback for the Hurricanes (13-2, 4-0 ACC), who trailed 4-1 until tying the score at 4-4 in the fifth inning on a two-run double by Hermann and an RBI base knock by Harold Martinez.

Miami's bullpen duo of Taylor Wulf and Kyle Bellamy (2-0) combined to hold Duke to one hit over the final three innings, cleaning up after a six-inning outing from starter Chris Hernandez. Bellamy notched the win after coming into the game in the ninth in place of Wulf, who did not give up a hit over his two innings of work.

Duke (9-5, 2-2 ACC) touched up Hernandez for two runs in the top of the first and third innings on the way to a 4-1 lead before the Hurricanes drove in three runs in the fifth to tie the score. Duke's senior catcher Matt Williams had three of Duke's RBI, while Alex Hassan drove in the other run. Hassan also went 2-for-4 and scored a pair of runs, giving him his ninth multi-hit game and sixth multi-run game of the season.

Hassan (1-1) was credited with the loss, however, after Lawson drove his game-winning double off of Duke's two-way closer in the ninth. It was the first loss for Hassan since he took over as Duke's closer last season and ran his career record as Duke's end-game reliever to 6-1. Duke reliever Dennis O'Grady bridged the gap between Hassan and starter Christopher Manno with 3.1 shutout innings in which he gave up just two hits and a walk while striking out four.

The Blue Devils jumped on Hernandez for two runs in the first inning on an RBI single by Hassan and an RBI groundout by Williams. Duke knocked three hits in the inning, including a leadoff double by Gabriel Saade and another two-bagger by cleanup hitter Nate Freiman. Saade's two-bagger came on the third pitch of the game and set the table for Hassan, who knocked an 0-1 fastball into center field to score Saade for a 1-0 lead. Freiman then followed with a two-strike double that burned Miami right fielder Dave DiNatale and moved both he and Hassan into scoring position. Duke would churn out one more run in the inning, thanks to an RBI groundout to the right side by Williams.

Miami's offense did not take long to get going either, as the Hurricanes strung together consecutive hits in the bottom of the first to put their first run on the board and trim Duke's lead to 2-1. Jason Hagerty drove in Lawson with the second hit of the inning after Lawson opened the scoring series with a double off the right field wall. Manno rebounded to limit the damage to just one run though, striking out DiNatale with two outs and two men in scoring position. It was the second punchout of the inning for Manno, who opened the game by sitting down Miami leadoff man Ryan Jackson with a 1-2 fastball that painted the inside corner for Manno's 100th career K.

Following a scoreless second inning from Duke, Hurricane catcher Yasmani Grandal opened the bottom half of the second by ripping a leadoff single back up the middle. But the base hit did little damage, as Williams threw out Miami center fielder Nathan Melendres while trying to steal second after he traded spots on the base paths with Grandal after a fielder's choice ground ball. It was the fourth runner caught stealing of the season for Williams and his third in Duke's last four games. Opponents are now just 6-for-10 this season when trying to steal off Williams.

Duke added two more runs in the third to go ahead 4-1 after the Hurricanes gave Duke three extra outs by committing four errors in the inning. All four errors came on Hermann at third base, who made two of those on the same play. His first fault allowed Saade to reach first base, but did the least damage after Hernandez caught Saade leaning and fired over to first base to catch him stealing. His second, however, came with two outs and allowed Hassan to get to first base after he bobbled the hard ground ball that Hassan hit his way. His next two came on another ground ball to his left side hit by Freiman, which he ranged to his glove side and fielded, only to drop it for the first error and throw wide right to his first baseman for the second error. The ball sailed into Miami's dugout on the first base side, allowing both Freiman and Hassan to advance into scoring position. But with two outs on the board, Duke had still not scored until Williams came through with a base hit through the left side that scored both runners and allowed Williams to move to second on the ensuing throw to the plate. Grandal would kill Duke's rally and limit the damage to two runs, by picking off Williams at second base with a snap throw down to the bag.

Manno settled into a groove in the third and fourth, retiring six of Miami's next seven batters to keep Duke's 4-1 lead intact. Manno fanned two batters during that two-inning span, giving him four for the game, which matched a season-high that he set in a seven-inning outing against Dartmouth.

Hermann made up for his errors back in the third inning with a two-out double in the bottom of the fifth that sent in two runs and cut Duke's lead to 4-3. The two-run double also knocked Manno out of the game after he ran his pitch count to 94 with the full-count offering that Hermann ripped down the right field line. It drove in Lawson and Hagerty, who each reached with two outs walks. O'Grady took the mound following Manno's departure, but could not stop the two-out rally. Martinez welcomed O'Grady to the game with a base hit through the left side that scored Hermann from second and tied the game at 4-4 before O'Grady struck out DiNatale to end the inning.

Hernandez, meanwhile, held Duke scoreless for the third straight inning in the top of the sixth. He retired the side in order and struck out two batters, bringing total for the game to five. Duke freshman Will Piwnica-Worms made him work for his first punchout of the inning by fouling off three pitches with two strikes before finally missing on a cutter.

O'Grady stayed on the mound in the bottom of the sixth and got some help from his defense to get through an uneventful sixth with the game still at a deadlock. Both Piwnica-Worms and Saade made tremendous, hit-saving plays in the field to stifle what very well could have turned into a big inning for the Hurricanes. The would-be rally started with what would have been a double in the gap by Grandal, but Piwnica-Worms chased down the deep fly ball and caught it on the warning track in left-center field just seconds before he crashed into the outfield wall. Saade then robbed fellow Miami, Fla., native Nathan Melendres of a base hit with a leaping grab at second base. Saade timed Melendres' line drive perfectly and leapt to catch the ball at its highest point before falling back to the ground and recording the out. O'Grady then struck out Weislow with a breaking ball on the outside part of the plate to end the inning.

Miami went to its bullpen in the bottom of the seventh, bringing Wulf into the game to face Duke nin-hitter Ryan McCurdy and then the top the Blue Devil order. He struggled with his command early and walked McCurdy, but locked in to strike out Duke's next two hitters. McCurdy, who advanced to second on a passed ball, was then left stranded when Wulf forced Hassan to ground out to first base for the third out.

The Hurricanes got a leadoff double from Jackson to start the seventh, but had their shot at taking their first lead of the game foiled by the Blue Devils, who stranded Jackson on third with an inning-ending double play. With Jackson on third after moving up on a groundout, O'Grady walked Hagerty on a 3-1 count to put runners at the corners. The walk proved to work in Duke's favor, as O'Grady forced the cleanup hitter Hermann to slap a weakly-hit ground ball up the middle to Lemmerman, who fielded it and flipped to Saade to start Duke's ACC-leading 15th double play of the season.

Wulf continued to keep Duke's bats in check through the eighth and struck out two more Blue Devils on the way to his second straight hitless inning. But O'Grady did the same for Duke, sitting down Miami's five through seven hitters in order in the bottom half of the inning. Two of those outs were strikeouts, giving O'Grady 11 punchouts on the season.

After Wulf kept Duke's bats in check through the seventh and eighth, the Hurricanes called on Bellamy to take the mound in the ninth. Duke countered by sending Pfisterer to the plate as a pinch hitter, and the Duke freshman prevailed with a line drive single to right field to give Duke its first hit since the fifth inning. A sacrifice bunt by McCurdy would then push pinch runner Tom Luciano over to second, but Bellamy settled down in time to force to straight popouts to end the inning and strand Luciano on second.

Following three-plus shutout innings from O'Grady, Duke brought in Hassan in the bottom of the ninth with the score still tied at 4-4. Hassan struck out Melendres for the first out, but had his 2-2 offering to Weislow ripped into right field to give Miami the go-ahead run at first base. Jackson followed that with an infield single to the hole on the left side that put he and Weislow on first and second and set the table for Lawson's game-winning double.

Duke and Miami will continue the series on Saturday, March 14, at 7 p.m. on Mark Light Field at Alex Rodriguez Park. Senior right-hander Andrew Wolcott (2-0, 1.71 ERA) will throw for the Blue Devils opposite Miami right-hander David Gutierrez (2-0, 0.50 ERA).

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