Dominant Pitching and Early Offense Lead Duke Past Army, 7-0

Sunday, February 16

Durham Bulls Athletic Park

1 p.m.

Duke University

2-1

Army

1-2

Army

Duke

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Dominant Pitching and Early Offense Lead Duke Past Army, 7-0

2/16/2020 5:30:00 PM | Baseball

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DURHAM, N.C. – Dominant pitching and early offense carried the Duke baseball team to a 7-0 victory against Army West Point in Sunday's series finale at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. With the win, the Blue Devils improve to 2-1 on the campaign and clinch their first series win of the season.

"We got a great start from Cooper Stinson," said head coach Chris Pollard. "That was as good as I've seen him throw the baseball. He was really electric. I thought we had really tough at-bats early in the game against a really good arm in Ray Bartoli. I challenged our guys before the game to be really aggressive in everything that we do and I thought we had a much more aggressive style of baseball today."

Sophomore Cooper Stinson (1-0) was impressive in his first start of 2020, tossing 5.2 innings of three-hit baseball, while striking out six. The right-hander carried a perfect game through the first 4.2 frames of play before surrendering his first hit of the afternoon on an infield single. Stinson was followed by the trio of redshirt freshman Jimmy Loper, freshman Marcus Johnson and junior Thomas Girard, who each provided strong efforts out of the Duke bullpen.

Loper worked 1.1 innings, while scattering one hit and registering two punchouts, while Johnson tossed one frame and collected a pair of strikeouts in his collegiate debut. Girard closed out the game, tossing the final clean inning to secure the shutout victory for the Blue Devils. The Duke pitching staff combined for 10 strikeouts, while surrendering no walks and yielding only four hits in the contest.

Offensively, Duke was led by multi-hit efforts from the foursome of junior Joey Loperfido, sophomore Ethan Murray, junior Michael Rothenberg and senior Chase Cheek, while eight of nine starters reached base safely at least once. Rothenberg highlighted the offensive output, notching his first home run of the season, while recording a team-high two RBI and a team-high tying two runs scored.

The Blue Devil offense struck early for five runs across the first two frames. Duke plated one run in the first, using a two-out rally to produce the game's first score. Rothenberg began the scoring sequence, sending a single through the right side before senior Matt Mervis reached on a walk to place runners on first and second. One batter later, Cheek fisted a bloop single to shallow left field to score Rothenberg and place the Blue Devils in the scoring column.

The Duke second began with a hit-by-pitch to sophomore Rudy Maxwell before freshman Grant Norris reached on a one-out walk to put two on base. Loperfido used the next at-bat to line a double to center field, scoring one run, but a perfect relay from the Army center fielder and shortstop nailed Norris at the plate to cut down a potential second run on the play.

The inning continued with a single from Murray to bring across Loperfido and push the Blue Devil lead to three. One batter later, Rothenberg lifted a ball over the right field wall for a two-run shot to make it a 5-0 ballgame after just two innings of play.

The two teams went scoreless across the next three frames until Duke added insurance in the sixth with a pair of runs. The scoring sequence began as Norris reached on a hit-by-pitch to begin the inning. One batter later, Loperfido laid down a bunt single before an errant throw by the Army first baseman allowed Norris to come across and score and from first. Loperfido then advanced to third on his first stolen base of the season before scoring on a throwing error by the Army catcher to set the score at 7-0, the eventual final.

Duke returns to the diamond on Tuesday afternoon, as the team welcomes William & Mary for midweek matchup. The Blue Devils and Tribe are set for a 4 p.m. first pitch from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, with action airing live on ACC Network Extra.

For more information on Duke baseball, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "DukeBaseball". You can also find all-access coverage of all Duke athletic programs on SnapChat by searching for "dukeathletics".

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