Dougherty Belts 3 Homers, Duke Bests Ohio State 8-1

Friday, February 26

Myrtle Beach, S.C.

1:00 PM

Duke University

Ohio State

Dougherty Belts 3 Homers, Duke Bests Ohio State 8-1

2/26/2016 4:38:00 PM | Baseball

Audio Archive: Duke 8, Ohio State 1 (Feb. 26, 2016)Box Score (PDF)Box Score (HTML)

By: Duke Sports Information

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Sophomore centerfielder Evan Dougherty belted the first three home runs of his career and Duke downed Ohio State, 8-1, Friday afternoon at TicketReturn.com Field at Pelicans Ballpark in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Duke (4-1) totaled four home runs on the day and scored a season-high eight runs in the victory. Dougherty lifted a two-run shot in the fifth, added a solo homer in the seventh and launched another two-run homer in the eighth, finishing the day 3-for-4 with a career-high five RBI. Junior Cris Perez contributed his first homer of the season, a two-run blast to left center, in the top of the ninth.

“I was just looking for good pitches to hit and put good swings on it,” Dougherty said. “With the wind, it's real tempting to get the ball up, but I was just trying to hit line drives instead. Just happened to back spin balls and get them out of here."

Dougherty is the third ACC played with a three-home since 2013 along with Boston College's Chris Shaw (2015) and Miami's David Thompson (2015). He is also the third player in Division I with a three-homer game this season, joining Elon's Kyle Jackson and North Carolina A&T's Milton Rivera.

“Really happy for Evan,” said head coach Chris Pollard “You knew the ball was really going to travel here today, but he got those balls good. They would get out at a lot of ballparks. We've been starting to see that from Evan. He's started to show that power. He's a very athletic, very strong guy.”

The Duke pitching staff backed up the offense, limiting Ohio State (3-1-1) to one on five hits. Junior Bailey Clark's quality start allowed the Blue Devils to establish a lead. Clark (1-0) fanned a season-high 10 batters, surrendering just one run on five hits over 6.0 innings to earn the win. Clark struck out two batters in four of his six frames, including each of his final three.

“Bailey competed great,” Pollard added. “I was particularly impressed with his fifth and sixth innings where he really had to grind with runners on base. That to me is very emblematic of his growth and maturation, to get in those later innings and be able to stay in the moment mentally and make pitches was very impressive.”

Junior Karl Blum took over in the seventh and retired all six Buckeyes he faced, striking out three. Sophomore Jack Labosky tossed a perfect ninth to close out the game.

The day began as a pitchers' duel between Clark and Ohio State starter Adam Niemeyer. Niemeyer retired 12 of the first 14 Blue Devil batters before running into trouble in the fifth. Freshman Zack Kone beat out the first of his two infield singles to start the rally and Dougherty cleared the bases with his first career home run.

Niemeyer (0-1) ultimately suffered the loss, surrendering four runs on nine hits over 6.2 innings. He also struck out seven and did not walk a batter.

After a Ronnie Dawson solo homer in the bottom of the sixth cut the lead to 2-1, Duke answered with a pair of runs in the seventh. Dougherty began with his second home run, extending the margin to 3-1. Three-straight two-out singles from Max Miller, Jimmy Herron and Peter Zyla added a second run, establishing a 4-1 Duke advantage.

Miller ended the day 2-for-5 while Herron was 3-for-5 as both Blue Devils at the top of the order scored a run each.

Dougherty extended the lead to five, launching a ball over the left field bleachers in the eighth, and Perez finished off the day with his ninth-inning blast.

Duke returns to action Saturday, Feb. 27 at 12 p.m., taking on Liberty at TicketReturn.com Field at Pelicans Ballpark on day two of the Caravelle Resort's Baseball at the Beach Tournament.

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