Blue Devils Fall to Demon Deacons in 10

Saturday, March 26

Winston-Salem, N.C.

4:00 PM

Duke University

Wake Forest

Blue Devils Fall to Demon Deacons in 10

3/26/2016 8:06:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Duke Sports Information

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Duke took a 2-1 lead late into the game, but a Will Craig solo home run and bases-loaded wild pitch in the 10^th catapulted the Demon Deacons to a 3-2 win Saturday evening at David F. Couch Ballpark.

“I thought we competed good,” said head coach Chris Pollard. “[We] played good defense. We had our chances with runners in scoring position and just didn't get the hit.”

Duke plated the game's opening run in the top of the third. Freshman Griffin Conine led off with a single and moved to second on a Max Miller sacrifice bunt. Jimmy Herron lined a base hit up the middle before Conine crossed home on a Chris Proctor fielder's choice. Duke went on to load the bases before Demon Deacon right-hander Connor Johnstone worked out of the jam.

Wake Forest had an immediate answer in the bottom half as Johnny Aiello led off with a base hit and eventually crossed home on a Joey Rodriguez RBI single.

The back-and-forth action continued to start the fourth. The Blue Devils regained the lead, 2-1, capitalizing on a Jack Laboksy leadoff single. A Demon Deacon throwing error on Peter Zyla's bunt allowed Laboksy to take third, setting up an RBI groundout for Zack Kone.

Duke's 2-1 margin stood until the bottom of the eighth when Craig sent a solo home run, his eighth of the season, over the left field wall.

Graduate student Kellen Urbon turned in his third quality start of the season, pitching seven innings in the no decision. Urbon scattered six hits, allowed two runs, walked four and struck out two. Labosky came on in relief and pitched two shutout innings to keep the score knotted at two-all. Urbon and Labosky limited the Demon Deacons to a 1-for-18 performance with runners on through nine innings.

“[Kellen and Jack] both pitched great,” Pollard said. “Kellen pitched really great in his first ACC start. Pitched to both sides of the plate. Made some tough pitches when he had to. I thought Jack came in behind him and threw the ball really well.”

Nate Modue began the bottom of the 10^th with a base hit, followed by a Craig walk. Duke intentionally walked Stuart Fairchild to load the bases after Drew Freedman put down the sacrifice bunt. Senior Nick Hendrix's (1-2) offering bounced to the backstop, allowing the game-winning run to cross home.

“We were in a situation where we felt we had to execute offspeed,” Pollard said. “In that situation, if there's ever a time in the game when you go for the strikeout, that's the time. We were left on left. Felt like that was the time to execute a breaking ball down to get the strike out to get to two outs. Took a tough bounce off the plate.”

Wake Forest's Daniel Sellers (4-1) earned the win after 1.2 shutout innings in relief. Johnstone went seven complete innings to start the game, allowing two runs (one earned) on eight hits in the no decision.

Junior Cris Perez went 3-for-4, registering base hits in the first, third and fifth frames. Over his past eight contests, Perez is batting .522 (12-for-23) and raised his overall batting average to a team-best .309.

Freshman Jimmy Herron registered three hits out of the leadoff spot and picked up two stolen bases to bring his team-leading total to 10 on the year.

“Cris Perez had two 0-2 hits,” Pollard said. “Jimmy did a good job of making things happen on the bases. We had the bases loaded [in the fourth] and came out of it with one run. We just need to push a couple more runs across there and through the course of the ballgame.”

Duke and Wake Forest square off in the series finale Sunday, March 27 at David F. Couch Ballpark. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. Duke's Brian McAfee takes the mound opposite Wake Forest's Drew Loepprich.

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