Santucci's Career Day Guides No. 12 Duke to Series Opening Win

Friday, March 1

Durham, N.C.

Noon

Duke University

9-0

Akron

2-6

Akron

Duke

Santucci's Career Day Guides No. 12 Duke to Series Opening Win

3/1/2024 3:19:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes (PDF)

DURHAM – Junior left-hander Jonathan Santucci tossed a gem on Friday afternoon, punching out a career high 14 batters, as No. 12 Duke (9-0) defeated the Akron Zips (2-6) 6-0 at Jack Coombs Field.

Junior Devin Obee opened the scoring for the Blue Devils, singling down the line in left to score Logan Bravo from second. The Blue Devils erupted for five runs in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 6-0.

Junior Ryan Higgins and sophomore Edward Hart combined to toss two innings of scoreless baseball closing out the two-hitter for Duke.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Devin Obee singled down the line in left to score Logan Bravo from second in the bottom of the second, 1-0.
Obee hit a solo home run to left field. Macon Winslow hit a home run to left field. Zac Morris added a two-run home run to left field and Alex Stone singled through the right side to score Ben Miller from second, 6-0.

NOTES

Graduate transfer Ben Miller extended his hitting streak to nine games on Friday, finishing the day 3-for-4 with two doubles.
Junior Devin Obee and freshman Macon Winslow hit back-to-back home runs against Akron, marking the first time since Duke hit back-to-back home runs since doing so against George Mason in Conway, S.C.
Junior left-hander Jonathan Santucci tossed a gem on Friday, tying career high six innings pitched and punched out a career high 14 batters. He improved to 3-0 on the season and holds a perfect 0.00 ERA.
Duke improves to 179-50 (.758) since 2016 when scoring first and 191-40 (.827) when scoring three or more runs in an inning.
Sophomore Edward Hart and junior Ryan Higgins both worked an inning in relief to close out the Blue Devils victory.

QUOTES

"Just an incredible performance by Jonathan Santucci today. I thought he did a great job of setting a tone in the first inning and was able to get in the zone whenever he needed to. He was able to produce a ton of swing and miss and worked fast which put a lot of pressure on them in the batter's box." – Head coach Chris Pollard on the outing by Santucci today.
"It was a real good job by our offense to grind out their best starting in the fourth. They were planning on getting five or six innings out of him and we were able to chase him off." – On the offensive production in the fourth inning.

UP NEXT

Duke and Akron continue the three-game series on Saturday from Jack Coombs Field. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.

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