No. 11 Duke Rolls No. 9 Virginia in Series Opener

Thursday, March 28

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

19-7, 5-5

Virginia

21-5, 6-4

Virginia

Duke

No. 11 Duke Rolls No. 9 Virginia in Series Opener

3/28/2024 10:00:00 PM | Baseball

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DURHAM – Junior left-handed pitcher Jonathan Santucci improved to 5-0 on the season, working five innings of two-hit baseball against No. 9 Virginia (21-5, 6-4 ACC), as No. 11 Duke (19-7, 5-5 ACC) defeated the Cavaliers, 9-4, on Thursday at Jack Coombs Field.

The Blue Devils opened up the scoring in the bottom of the first as Ben Miller laced a double to left center to score Zac Morris from first. Logan Bravo tacked on another run, hitting a laser to left center to score Miller from second.

The Cavaliers cut the lead in half in the top of the second inning, before Duke scored four runs in the bottom half to extend its lead. Sophomore James Tallon worked two innings in relief of Santucci, allowed one run on two hits and striking out one batter, before handing the ball off to Gabriel Nard. Nard closed out the game with two innings of one-run baseball to down Virginia in the opener.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Ben Miller doubled to left center field to score Zac Morris from first. Logan Bravo doubled to left center to score Miller from second in the bottom of the first, 2-0.
Virginia cut into the lead in the top of the second, 2-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, Devin Obee singled through the left side to score Wallace Clark from second. Chase Krewson drew a bases loaded walk and Bravo flew out to center field to score Krewson, 6-1.
The Cavaliers cut into the lead in the top of the fifth, 6-2.
Obee doubled down the line in the left to score Clark. Krewson flew out to right field to score Obee from third in the bottom of the fifth, 8-2.
Virginia added a run in the top of the seventh inning, 8-3.
Alex Stone flew out to left field in the bottom of the eighth to score Miller from third, 9-3.
Virginia scored a run in the top of the ninth, 9-4.

NOTES

Junior Jonathan Santucci improved to 5-0 on the season, working five innings of two-hit baseball. He punched out six Cavaliers and walked four batters.
Graduate Ben Miller finished the day 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI. Miller raised his batting average above .450 once again this season.
Senior Alex Stone tallied a multi-hit contest, finishing the day 2-for-4 with a RBI.
Junior Devin Obee finished the day 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI.
Duke improved to 186-60 (.756) when scoring first since 2016 and 200-42 (.826) when scoring three-plus runs in an inning.

QUOTES

"Yeah, that is what I told our guys tonight. We felt like we were really good in all three phases. What I was most impressed with, was I thought it was our best game of communicating. From the bench to the infield, guys were talking and active and on top of that we threw a lot of strikes." – Head coach Chris Pollard on his overall thoughts on the series opening win.
"It was really good. Obviously with a lefty dominate lineup last week he didn't have a chance to use the changeup. I will be the first to admit I didn't know it was going to be in the gameplan that much tonight. It was a great job by him and BK of recognizing that it was going to be an option. We saw against Clemson that he was getting a lot of bad swings with it and it produced the same tonight. He is growing into a three-pitch guy." – On the job Santucci did to locate the changeup and get swing and miss with it.

UP NEXT

Duke and Virginia continue the three-game series on Friday evening from Jack Coombs Field. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.

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