Duke Downs Virginia Tech Behind McAfee Gem

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Sunday, April 24

Blacksburg, Va.

1:00 PM

Duke University

Virginia Tech

Duke Sweeps Gardner-Webb in Doubleheader

Duke Downs Virginia Tech Behind McAfee Gem

4/24/2016 4:14:00 PM | Baseball

BASE vs. VIRGINIA TECH: Audio Archive Box Score (PDF)Box Score (HTML)

By: Duke Sports Information

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Graduate student Brian McAfee turned in his sixth quality start of the season to lead Duke past Virginia Tech, 3-1, Sunday afternoon at English Field at Union Park.

McAfee allowed one run on seven hits over eight innings. He struck out five and did not walk a batter, facing a three-ball count just twice in the game. McAfee retired 10 straight Hokie batters from the fourth to the seventh, inducing six groundball outs in that span.

“Unbelievable,” said head coach Chris Pollard. “Eight innings, no walks, five strikeouts. [He] did a great job of pitching to the bottom of the strike zone. We knew if he executed to the bottom of the strike zone, we'd get a lot of groundball outs.”

Freshman Jimmy Herron walked twice and had two RBI, while freshman Zack Kone was 3-for-5 with a run scored to pace Duke (23-18, 9-12 ACC) at the plate.

Peter Zyla and Kone singled to start the second prior to a Michael Smiciklas walk to loading the bases. Herron worked an RBI walk to plate the game's first run before Chris Proctor's line drive was snared by a leaping Matt Dauby at second base to limit the damage.

The scored stood at 1-0 until the sixth. Kone singled for the third time and Smiciklas added a base hit to center field. After Max Miller was hit by a pitch, Herron lifted a sacrifice fly ball to right. A passed ball a batter later allowed Duke's third run to cross home.

McAfee blanked the Hokies for eight innings before Virginia Tech received a Phil Sciretta double and Nick Anderson RBI single to score its first run. After sophomore Mitch Stallings entered the game, Herron made a spectacular catch in left, colliding with the wall, for the first out. Stallings then got Andrew Mogg to ground into a 4-3 double play to register his sixth save of the season.

“The other time we've sent [McAfee] back to the mound, we were 100 percent sure. We hemmed and hawed a little bit [today] because you could tell he was starting to fatigue a little bit. After the two quick hits, that were both struck well, it was an easy decision to go to Mitch. I thought Mitch did well. Jimmy [Herron] made a great play out there and it was a good turn by Max [Miller] to end it. This is a really good win.”

Duke returns to action Wednesday, April 27, taking on N.C. Central at the Durham Athletic Park.

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