Conine Walkoff Lifts Duke to Series Win over Cal

Sunday, February 21

Durham Bulls Athletic Park

11:00 AM

Duke University

California

Conine Walkoff Lifts Duke to Series Win over Cal

2/21/2016 3:14:00 PM | Baseball

Jalen Phillips Three-Run Home Run Griffin Conine Walkoff Against No. 10 Cal Griffin Conine Postgame Interview: Duke 5, Cal 4 Phillips Postgame Interview: Duke 5, Cal 4 Karl Blum Postgame Interview: Duke 5, Cal 4 Pollard Postgame Interivew: Duke 5, Cal 4 Box Score (PDF)Box Score (HTML)

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – With runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth, freshman Griffin Conine laced a line drive to right field to lift Duke to its second consecutive walkoff victory over No. 10 Cal. The Blue Devils toppled the Bears, 5-4, Sunday afternoon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park to secure a 2-1 series victory, their first series win over a top-10 team since 2009.

Conine's first career hit plated fellow freshman Zack Kone, who beat out an infield single to begin the ninth-inning rally. Sophomore Evan Dougherty drew a walk to move Kone into scoring position before Conine turned on a 1-0 pitch to end the game.

“The whole day they were throwing me all change ups,” Conine said. “I went up there with it in my mind and sure enough first pitch was a changeup. I'd thought he'd come back [with it] again because it was a ball, and he did. I saw it well out of his hand. Just dropped the bat head and luckily it stayed fair down the right field line.”

Pitching the eighth and ninth innings, junior Karl Blum (1-0) retired all six Cal batters he faced to pick up the win.

“[Blums'] stuff was better today than it was yesterday, really electric,” said head coach Chris Pollard. “Featured a really electric slider. He's going to be a big key to our success this year.”

Graduate student Brian McAfee made his Duke debut after pitching for Cornell University the past four seasons. McAfee tossed seven strong innings, allowing four runs on seven hits with four strikeouts in the no decision.

“[McAfee] competed unbelievable,” Pollard added. “Really good ballgame. He felt he got stronger as the game went on. You get a start like that on Sunday and feel pretty good about your club.”

Similar to Saturday, Cal again jumped out to an early later, plating a run in the top of the first. Center fielder Austin Knapp singled and stole second before crossing home on a Pearson RBI single. McAfee settled down and induced a double play before striking out Brenden Farney to end the threat.

Duke first baseman Jalen Phillips negated the Bears' advantage with one swing of the bat, launching a three-run home run to right in the bottom of the second to put Duke on top, 3-1.

“He threw me a ball early, so I went 1-0 and he threw me another ball,” Phillips said. “Up 2-0, I was just sitting on a fastball. Tried to cheat the barrel a little bit and had some fun.”

The two teams traded a run each in the fifth. Cal's Nick Halamandaris doubled and scored on a Robbie Tenerowicz sac fly in the top half before Duke's Peter Zyla drove in Jimmy Herron with an RBI single in the bottom of the frame.

In the seventh, Halamandaris doubled for the second straight at bat, driving in a run to make it a 4-3 ballgame. With runners at the corners, Preston Grand Pre laid down a suicide squeeze bunt that tied the game at four.

Neither team scored in the eighth, leading to Conine's game-winning effort in the ninth. Cal's Jeff Bain (0-1) pitched the final 4.1 innings and ultimately took the loss after surrendering two runs on four hits.

Duke returns to action at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 23, taking on Campbell at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Pregame coverage begins at 3:45 p.m. on GoDuke.com.

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