Six Duke Pitchers Combine on 3-0 Shutout

Wednesday, April 13

Durham Bulls Athletic Park

6:00 PM

Duke University

NC Central

Baseball Returns to Coombs to Host Campbell

Six Duke Pitchers Combine on 3-0 Shutout

4/13/2016 10:00:00 PM | Baseball

BASE vs. NCCU: Stallings Gets Fourth Save BASE vs. NCCU: Proctor Interview BASE vs. NCCU: Pollard Interview BASE vs. NCCU: Ziemba Interview BASE vs. NCCU: Duke Pitchers Record 12 Ks Box Score (PDF)Box Score (HTML)

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – Six pitchers combined on Duke's third shutout of the season as the Blue Devils topped N.C. Central, 3-0, Wednesday evening at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The Blue Devils' six pitchers – Trent Swart, James Ziemba, Kevin Lewallyn, Nick Hendrix, Jack Labosky and Mitch Stallings – struck out a combined 12 Eagle batters without issuing a walk.

Swart pitched a scoreless first inning to start off the game before giving way to Ziemba (1-1) who fanned six of the nine batters he faced to earn the win. Lewallyn tossed three shutout frames to cover the middle innings. After Hendrix and Labosky each threw an inning, Stallings came on to record his fourth save of the season.

“I thought we pitched outstanding,” said head coach Chris Pollard. “I really liked the way we pitched the baseball tonight.”

N.C. Central (17-19) totaled eight hits to six for Duke (19-15), but the Blue Devils took advantage of early scoring opportunities. Duke plated a run in both the first and second frames then added a seventh-inning insurance tally.

Freshman Chris Proctor paced the Blue Devils at the plate, going two-for-three with two RBI. Fellow rookie Jimmy Herron added a base hit, a stolen base and a run scored out of the leadoff spot, while sophomore Jack Labosky and freshman Zack Kone each doubled.

Herron helped Duke manufacture a first-inning run, lining a lead single to right center before swiping second. A groundball advanced Herron to third and Cris Perez drove in the game's first run with a ball to deep short that N.C. Central's Thomas Prospero could not corral.

Duke staked a two-run lead by the end of the second. Kone led off with a double and ultimately scored on Proctor's two-out RBI single.

Both teams pitched well over the middle innings. NCCU starter Christian Gonnelli (3-2) settled down after the first two innings and did not allow a run his final four frames. He threw six complete frames in the loss, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks while striking out five.

“Tip your hat to Gonnelli,” Pollard said. “He settled in and pitched well. We were right on him early and let him off the hook a little bit with some base running mistakes and just missed some balls that could've salted the game. Give a lot of credit to him because he used that to his advantage. He got better as the game went on.”

The Blue Devils added an insurance run in the seventh inning as Proctor recorded his second RBI of the game. Michael Smiciklas singled and Max Miller reached on a fielder's choice after the Eagles' throw to second on a sacrifice bunt was not in time. With two away and runners at second and third, Proctor lifted a sacrifice fly to center, plating Smiciklas.

Labosky allowed one hit in a scoreless eighth and Stallings did the same in the ninth to complete the shutout.

Duke returns to action Friday-Sunday, April 15-17 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, welcoming consensus No. 1 Miami for a three-game set.

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