Duke Scores Four in First, Holds Off NCCU

Wednesday, April 27

Durham Athletic Park

6:00 PM

Duke University

NC Central

Duke Scores Four in First, Holds Off NCCU

4/27/2016 9:52:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – Each of Duke's first four batters scored to start the game and the Blue Devils used nine pitchers to limit North Carolina Central to two runs, downing the Eagles, 4-2, Wednesday evening at the Durham Athletic Park.

Sophomore Jack Labosky launched a three-run homer in the first to provide the Blue Devils with an early advantage they would not relinquish. Classmate Justin Bellinger doubled in the first and beat out an infield single in the sixth, while freshman Zack Kone also added an RBI.

NCCU (21-24, 8-10 MEAC) faced a different Blue Devil pitcher to start every frame in a scheduled split as Trent Swart (2-1), Bailey Clark, James Ziemba, Al Pesto, Nick Hendrix, Karl Blum, Ryan Day, Labosky and Mitch Stallings tossed an inning each. Swart retired all three batters he faced in the win and Stallings picked up his seventh save of the year with a scoreless ninth.

Duke (24-18, 9-12 ACC) led off the game with a Jimmy Herron walk, Chris Proctor single and Labosky three-run homer to left. The Labosky bomb was his team-leading sixth of the season and propelled the Blue Devils to an early 3-0 lead. Bellinger then doubled, advanced to third on a Peter Zyla grounder to second and slid in safely on Kone's sacrifice fly to right, resulting in a 4-0 Duke advantage.

“I thought we had really good at bats,” said head coach Chris Pollard. “Again Jimmy [Herron] leads off the game and gets on first base. [Chris] Proctor had a good two-strike at bat. Jack [Labosky] got in a 1-0 count and sat fastball and didn't miss it. [Justin] Bellinger came up behind him and had a good at bat.”

Eagle starter Jon Figueroa (1-1) settled down after the first and permitted just two Duke baserunners over the final five innings of his outing. Each of the first four Blue Devils reached against Figueroa, but the right-hander allowed only a two-out Cris Perez base hit in the fourth and a Bellinger sixth-inning infield single following the first.

“Figueroa made a concerted effort to go offspeed heavy,” Pollard said. “He was pitching off his fastball. We were timed up on it. Then he just switched and starting throwing a lot of offspeed early in the count. Got our timing off and got us on our heels. He settled in and pitched a great ballgame for them.”

NCCU countered with a two-run third when Trevor Theisson belted an RBI triple to the left center gap then scored on a Carlos Ortiz sacrifice fly.

The two runs were all the Duke pitchers would permit as the Eagles stranded a runner at third in the sixth and Duke turned a 4-6-3 double play to conclude the seventh after the first two NCCU batters reached base.

“I thought we pitched very, very well,” Pollard added. “We had one walk in the ballgame. I thought our infield defense was the best I've seen it since I've been at Duke.”

Duke returns to ACC play this weekend, traveling to Raleigh, N.C., for the three-game set versus NC State Friday-Sunday, April 28-May 1.

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