Upcoming Event: Baseball versus Maine on February 13, 2026 at 4 p.m.
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4 p.m.
Baseball
vs Maine
Tuesday, March 29
Durham Bulls Athletic Park
6:00 PM
Duke University
6
vs
1
Liberty
Blue Devils Best Flames in Midweek Action
3/29/2016 9:45:00 PM | Baseball
Condensed Game: Duke 6, Liberty 1BASE vs. LIBERTY: Bellinger Two-Out, Two-Run SingleBASE vs. LIBERTY: Pollard InterviewBASE vs. LIBERTY: Stallings Records Final OutBASE vs. LIBERTY: Conine Play at the PlateBASE vs. LIBERTY: Bellinger InterviewFull Game Replay: Duke 6, Liberty 1BASE vs. LIBERTY: Audio ArchiveBASE vs. LIBERTY: Labosky Game-Tying DoubleBox Score (PDF)Box Score (HTML)
DURHAM, N.C. – Six Duke pitchers limited Liberty to a lone fifth-inning run and the Blue Devils totaled 12 hits to defeat the Flames, 6-1, Tuesday evening at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
James Ziemba, Hunter Davis, Nick Hendrix, Ryan Day, Jack Labosky and Mitch Stallings combined to allow one run on three hits while striking out 10 Flames' batters. Day (1-0) put up scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh innings to secure his first victory of the season.
“Day threw the ball great,” said head coach Chris Pollard. “I was really impressed with all our guys. It was kind of mission accomplished. We got our relief corps the work they needed going into the weekend. Everyone was efficient.”
Duke's offense registered eight of its 12 hit during the sixth, seventh and eighth innings as the Blue Devils plated all six of their runs during that span. Sophomore Justin Bellinger went 3-for-4 with two RBI, classmate Jack Labosky posted a 2-for-4 outing and freshman Chris Proctor was 2-for-3 at the plate.
In his first career start, Ziemba began the evening on a positive note, pitching two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Davis followed suit with two more shutout innings, fanning four batters.
The game remained scoreless until the top of the fifth when Liberty (16-11, 3-0 Big South) scored its only run of the game. Following a leadoff walk, Eric Grabowski tripled to deep center field. Duke escaped without further damage as left fielder Griffin Conine corralled a fly ball then threw out Grabowski at the plate to end the threat.
“Griffin's got a big time arm and he showed it off there on that play and got us off the field,” Pollard said.
Proctor ignited a four-run Blue Devil sixth by legging out a leadoff infield single. Labosky drove him in with a double down the left field line to tie the score at one-all. The hits continued to come as Peter Zyla loaded the bases with a single through the left side. After a wild pitch gave Duke a 2-1 lead, Bellinger lined a two-out, two-run base knock to center field.
Duke received leadoff doubles in both the seventh and the eighth, first from Jimmy Herron then Michael Smiciklas. In both frames, the Blue Devils laid down successful bunts before receiving sacrifice flies from Cris Perez and Zyla in the seventh and eighth, respectively.
“We did a good job of continuing to pour it on,” Pollard added. “It was a really good offensive effort by our club there in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.”
The five-run lead was more than enough for the Blue Devil pitching staff and the Flames were unable to move a runner into scoring position the rest of the way.
Duke hits the road for its second consecutive ACC series, traveling to Georgia Tech Friday-Sunday, April 1-3.
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