Istler Gem Propels Duke Past No. 5 Louisville

Saturday, April 11

Durham, N.C. (Durham Bulls Athletic Park)

1:00 PM

Duke University

Louisville

Istler Gem Propels Duke Past No. 5 Louisville

4/11/2015 5:30:00 PM | Baseball

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – Senior Andrew Istler was tremendous on the mound, propelling Duke to a 2-1 victory over No. 5 Louisville to even the series Saturday afternoon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Istler (3-2) allowed just one run over the course of seven standout innings. The right-hander scattered six hits and struck out 10 batters, marking his second double-digit strikeout performance of the season.

“I was able to locate my fastball in and out, which really helped,” Istler said. “My slider and cutter were very good, so I was able to get ahead. At first I was falling behind, but then was able to find a groove and work ahead.”

The win marked the 18th of Istler's career, which ties him for 10th in the Duke record books. In addition, his 3.18 career ERA is currently the seventh-best in program history.

“I thought it was the best pitched ballgame of his career when we really needed it,” said head coach Chris Pollard. “He's been throwing the ball great. Start after start, he's given us quality starts and gotten us deep into ballgames. He's just s tremendous competitor. He knew we needed that today and he just stepped up.”

With the win, Duke (22-14, 5-15 ACC) snapped Louisville's (26-8, 15-2) streak of 14-straight conference victories. The Cardinals had not dropped an ACC decision since a 9-5 setback March 7 at then-No. 10 Miami.

Freshman Mitch Stallings pitched around a one-out walk to blank Louisville in the eighth before giving way to closer Kenny Koplove. Koplove struck out the side in the ninth, including fanning two batters with runners in scoring position to end the game. The right-hander took a spill over the Louisville dugout railing trying to grab a foul ball popup, but stayed in to preserve the Duke 2-1 margin and record his seventh save of the season.

“I'm really proud of Kenny,” Pollard said. “You've got runners at second and third where a productive out ties the ballgame. A hit puts them ahead. We've had our share of adversity over the last couple weeks and sometimes when you're in that mode, you start to think about what can go wrong next. You need people that are strong enough to overcome that. Kenny is one of those guys. He never gave in to the moment. Tremendous effort all the way around by our pitching staff”

Louisville's Brendan McKay (5-1) suffered his first loss of the season despite a solid pitching performance. McKay surrendered two runs, one earned, on four hits. He walked one and struck out eight in seven innings.

After being shut out the night before, Duke went to work early to manufacture a run in the first. Senior Andy Perez laced a two-strike single through the left side, followed by a Max Miller walk. Freshman Peter Zyla and redshirt senior Mike Rosenfeld laid down back-to-back sacrifice bunts to put Duke up, 1-0.

Istler cruised through the first three frames, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced with six strikeouts, before Louisville registered three singles in the fourth to knot the score, 1-1. Left fielder Nick Solak led off with an infield single and advanced on a Duke throwing error. Right fielder Corey Ray drove in the Cardinals' lone run of the game with an RBI single.

Duke's pitching staff kept the Louisville offense in check the rest of the way as the Cardinals totaled two hits over the final fifth frames.

The Blue Devils regained the lead with an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth. Zyla extended his current hit streak to five games, roping a two-out single to left field. Rosenfeld lifted a fly ball to the outfield which popped out of the Louisville right fielder's glove after he ran into the center fielder. Zyla hustled around the bases and scored the go-ahead run.

“The play of the game to me is Pete Zyla going hard from first base on what appeared to be a routine fly ball,” Pollard said. “I don't know how many times you see that ball go up with two outs and that runner drops his head and trots around second assuming the inning was over. Pete Zyla went hard from contact with the thought that if it dropped, he was going to score. That's why you play the game hard.”

Duke and Louisville meet in the series final Sunday, April 12 at 1 p.m., at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The Blue Devils will throw right-hander Bailey Clark opposite Cardinal left-hander Josh Rogers.

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