DURHAM – The Duke baseball team dropped an 8-6 decision to Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in downtown Durham.
In a back-and-forth contest over the first four innings, the Bison registered two runs in the seventh and the Blue Devils were held scoreless over the final five innings as Duke dropped to 5-5 on the season.
RJ Schreck,
Chris Crabtree and
Graham Pauley paced the Blue Devils with a pair of hits and Duke tied a season high with three home runs. Â
The Blue Devils opened the scoring in the bottom of the first as Schreck launched his first home run of the 2022 campaign over the right field wall and then two batters later Crabtree blasted a 455-foot bomb to right field to put Duke ahead, 2-0. Â
A product of Bahama, N.C., Crabtree connected on his 20th career home run to move into a tie for 17th on Duke's all-time record books.
After Bucknell evened the score in the second with a 2-run home run from Jacob Terwillinger, Pauley hit his third home run of the season to put the Blue Devils back ahead, 3-2. Pauley, who is from Milton, Ga., connected on home runs in back-to-back days and now owns three this season.
Bucknell was able to plate four runs in the top of the fourth to take a 6-3 lead, but Duke's
Damon Lux evened the score in the bottom of the inning as he belted his a 3-run home run over the left field wall to even the score, 6-6. Â
In the seventh, Brendan Lowery of Bucknell had a 2-run home run to take an 8-6.
Luke Fox started for the Blue Devils on Saturday and went 3.2 innings, before
Josh Allen came in and retired seven of the first eight batters and lasted 2.1 innings.Â
Aaron Beasley finished the game retiring all five batters he faced. Â
Will Greer registered the win for the Bison (3-5), while Graeme Carroll was credited with the save.
Duke and Bucknell conclude the series with game three on Sunday at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra and on radio on the Varsity Network App.
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