Completed Event: Baseball versus Murray State on June 9, 2025 , Loss , 4, to, 5
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Final
Baseball
4
vs Murray State
5
Monday, February 24
Durham Bulls Athletic Park
4 p.m.
Duke University
7-1
16
vs
0
Air Force
1-7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Air Force
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
1
Duke
3
9
1
1
1
0
0
1
X
16
15
0
Photo by: Duke Athletics
Offense Explodes as Duke Cruises Past Air Force, 16-0
2/24/2020 7:48:00 PM | Baseball
DURHAM, N.C. – The 14th-ranked Duke baseball team extended its winning streak to seven games, claiming a 16-0 victory over Air Force on Monday afternoon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. With the win, the Blue Devils improve to 7-1 overall, while the Falcons fall to 1-7 on the season.
"That was a team that had the potential to come in here really hungry," said head coach Chris Pollard. "They're a lot better than their record indicates. For us, scoring early hasn't been something that we've done effectively, but we came out firing on all cylinders. That was a great breakout performance for our offense."
Duke used a season-high 15 hits and eight walks to score 16 runs—the most in a single contest during this early campaign. The offense was highlighted by a three-hit effort from senior Matt Mervis, who finished a single shy of the cycle. The senior co-captain closed out the afternoon 3-for-4 with a double, triple, home run, three RBI and team-high three runs scored. The foursome of junior Joey Loperfido, senior Erikson Nichols, redshirt sophomore Wil Hoyle and freshman Chad Knight each recorded multi-hit outings with two hits apiece, highlighted by Knight's first career home run.
The Blue Devils used a combination of seven pitchers on the mound to register the team's fifth shutout of the season. Making his second start of the season, senior Bill Chillari (2-0) picked up the win, working 2.0 innings, allowing only one hit while racking up a pair of strikeouts. Six other pitchers combined to cover the final seven frames, including redshirt freshman Oliver McCarthy, who tossed one frame and struck out a pair of batters in his collegiate debut.
Duke sprinted out to a 12-0 lead after the first two frames to stake the early advantage. Loperfido led off the first with a walk before stealing second to place himself in scoring position. After advancing to third on a fly ball to center field, the Blue Devil leadoff man came across to score on a sacrifice fly by junior Michael Rothenberg.
After working a full count, Mervis used the next at-bat to notch his second home run of the season with a solo shot to right field. The inning continued as sophomore Ethan Murray drew a walk followed by a hit-by-pitch to Maxwell. With runners on first and second, Nichols lined a RBI single to left field to plate the third run of the inning, making it a 3-0 ballgame after one full.
The Blue Devils exploded for nine runs on eight hits in the second inning to extend the margin to 12-0. Duke reached its first nine batters of the frame, before eventually batting around as 13 different batters came to bat in the inning.
Duke added single tallies in the third, fourth, fifth and eighth innings to pad its lead en route to the team's largest win since 2017 in a 19-3 victory at Virginia on March 24.
The Blue Devils are set to hit the road this upcoming weekend for their first trip of the season. Duke will head to Minneapolis, Minn., for the Cambria College Classic. The Blue Devils will take on Purdue, Minnesota and Iowa across the three-game set, which will take place at U.S. Bank Stadium—home of the Minnesota Vikings.
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".
#GoDuke
"That was a team that had the potential to come in here really hungry," said head coach Chris Pollard. "They're a lot better than their record indicates. For us, scoring early hasn't been something that we've done effectively, but we came out firing on all cylinders. That was a great breakout performance for our offense."
Duke used a season-high 15 hits and eight walks to score 16 runs—the most in a single contest during this early campaign. The offense was highlighted by a three-hit effort from senior Matt Mervis, who finished a single shy of the cycle. The senior co-captain closed out the afternoon 3-for-4 with a double, triple, home run, three RBI and team-high three runs scored. The foursome of junior Joey Loperfido, senior Erikson Nichols, redshirt sophomore Wil Hoyle and freshman Chad Knight each recorded multi-hit outings with two hits apiece, highlighted by Knight's first career home run.
The Blue Devils used a combination of seven pitchers on the mound to register the team's fifth shutout of the season. Making his second start of the season, senior Bill Chillari (2-0) picked up the win, working 2.0 innings, allowing only one hit while racking up a pair of strikeouts. Six other pitchers combined to cover the final seven frames, including redshirt freshman Oliver McCarthy, who tossed one frame and struck out a pair of batters in his collegiate debut.
Duke sprinted out to a 12-0 lead after the first two frames to stake the early advantage. Loperfido led off the first with a walk before stealing second to place himself in scoring position. After advancing to third on a fly ball to center field, the Blue Devil leadoff man came across to score on a sacrifice fly by junior Michael Rothenberg.
After working a full count, Mervis used the next at-bat to notch his second home run of the season with a solo shot to right field. The inning continued as sophomore Ethan Murray drew a walk followed by a hit-by-pitch to Maxwell. With runners on first and second, Nichols lined a RBI single to left field to plate the third run of the inning, making it a 3-0 ballgame after one full.
The Blue Devils exploded for nine runs on eight hits in the second inning to extend the margin to 12-0. Duke reached its first nine batters of the frame, before eventually batting around as 13 different batters came to bat in the inning.
Duke added single tallies in the third, fourth, fifth and eighth innings to pad its lead en route to the team's largest win since 2017 in a 19-3 victory at Virginia on March 24.
The Blue Devils are set to hit the road this upcoming weekend for their first trip of the season. Duke will head to Minneapolis, Minn., for the Cambria College Classic. The Blue Devils will take on Purdue, Minnesota and Iowa across the three-game set, which will take place at U.S. Bank Stadium—home of the Minnesota Vikings.
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".
#GoDuke
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Chillari, Bill (2-0)
L: MOULTON, Cade (0-1)
Batting:
2B: ZIMMERMAN, Cayden 1 ; GARCIA, Gabriel 1
Base Running:
SB: GUYETTE, Noah 1
HBP: GILLMAN, Tommy 1
Batting:
2B: Mervis, Matt 1 ; Nichols, Erikson 1 ; Dutra, Chris 1
3B: Loperfido, Joey 1 ; Mervis, Matt 1
HR: Mervis, Matt 1 ; Knight, Chad 1
RBI: Loperfido, Joey 1 ; Topolski, Jake 1 ; Rothenberg, Michael 3 ; Mervis, Matt 3 ; Murray, Ethan 1 ; Maxwell, Rudy 1 ; Nichols, Erikson 3 ; Dutra, Chris 1 ; Knight, Chad 1
SF: Rothenberg, Michael 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Loperfido, Joey 2 ; Cheek, Chase 1 ; Rothenberg, Michael 1 ; Mervis, Matt 3 ; Murray, Ethan 2 ; Maxwell, Rudy 1 ; Nichols, Erikson 1 ; Dutra, Chris 1 ; Knight, Chad 2 ; Hoyle, Wil 2
SB: Loperfido, Joey 1
HBP: Mervis, Matt 1 ; Maxwell, Rudy 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
1b/p
AB
4
R
3
H
3
RBI
3
AB
2
R
2
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
ph/c
AB
2
R
2
H
2
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
LHP
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/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
LHP
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/ Baseball
RHP/INF
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