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
Saturday, February 22
Durham, N.C.
3 p.m.
Duke University
3-3
16
vs
2
Cornell
1-1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Cornell
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
2
6
0
Duke
1
3
1
0
4
5
0
2
X
16
13
0
Pollard Becomes All-Time Winningest Coach in Duke History Saturday
2/22/2025 7:42:00 PM | Baseball
DURHAM – With his 382nd victory in a Duke uniform, head coach Chris Pollard surpassed legendary head coach Jack Coombs on Duke's all-time wins list, becoming the winningest coach in Blue Devils' history on Saturday afternoon.
The Blue Devils (3-3) defeated Cornell (1-1), 16-2, mashing 13 hits and drawing a program-tying 15 walks in the victory. Senior Ryan Higgins earned the win on the mound, working 4.1 innings and allowing two runs on two hits. He tallied a career-high seven strikeouts en route to the victory.
Duke opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning as AJ Gracia laced a single to left field to score Wallace Clark from second, 1-0. The Blue Devils added to their lead in the bottom of the second inning, as Ben Rounds doubled to left center field scoring a pair of Blue Devils before Gracia singled to right to extend the lead to 4-0.
A solo home run in the bottom of the third inning by Jake Hyde gave Duke a 5-0 cushion, before the Big Red answered in the top of the fifth inning, 5-2. Duke erupted at the plate in the fifth and sixth frames, scoring nine runs on eight walks, four hits, two home runs, and a sacrifice fly.
Graduate Reid Easterly stabilized the ballgame in the fifth, before passing the ball off to Edward Hart work tossed a hitless frame in the seventh. Roman DiGiacomo and Collins Black tossed two scoreless frames behind Hart, to close out Duke's victory 16-2.
HOW IT HAPPENED
NOTES
QUOTES
UP NEXT
For more information on Duke Baseball, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "DukeBASE".
#GoDuke
The Blue Devils (3-3) defeated Cornell (1-1), 16-2, mashing 13 hits and drawing a program-tying 15 walks in the victory. Senior Ryan Higgins earned the win on the mound, working 4.1 innings and allowing two runs on two hits. He tallied a career-high seven strikeouts en route to the victory.
Duke opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning as AJ Gracia laced a single to left field to score Wallace Clark from second, 1-0. The Blue Devils added to their lead in the bottom of the second inning, as Ben Rounds doubled to left center field scoring a pair of Blue Devils before Gracia singled to right to extend the lead to 4-0.
A solo home run in the bottom of the third inning by Jake Hyde gave Duke a 5-0 cushion, before the Big Red answered in the top of the fifth inning, 5-2. Duke erupted at the plate in the fifth and sixth frames, scoring nine runs on eight walks, four hits, two home runs, and a sacrifice fly.
Graduate Reid Easterly stabilized the ballgame in the fifth, before passing the ball off to Edward Hart work tossed a hitless frame in the seventh. Roman DiGiacomo and Collins Black tossed two scoreless frames behind Hart, to close out Duke's victory 16-2.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Duke opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, as AJ Gracia laced a single to left field to score Wallace Clark from second, 1-0.
- The Blue Devils added to their lead in the bottom of the second, as Ben Rounds doubled to left center field scoring a pair before Gracia singled to right to add to the lead, 4-0.
- In the bottom of the third inning, Jake Berger hit a solo home run to right field, 5-0.
- Cornell responded in the top of the fifth inning, 5-2.
- Duke responded in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Kyle Johnson drew a bases-loaded walk. Clark followed that up with the fifth-straight walk in the inning, 9-2.
- In the bottom of the sixth inning, Sam Harris hit a three-run home run to right center field, before Ben Miller pushed a sacrifice fly to right field. Gracia hit a solo home run to right field, 14-2.
- In the bottom of the eighth inning, Duke added a pair to close out the ballgame, 16-2.
NOTES
- Head coach Chris Pollard became the all-time winningest coach at Duke, surpassing Jack Coombs with his 382nd victory in a Blue Devils' uniform.
- Duke secured three two-out RBIs in Saturday's victory, bringing the season tally to 18. The Blue Devils have now scored 36.1% of their runs this season with two outs.
- Since 2016, Duke is now 198-66 (.750) when scoring first and 219-48 (.820) when scoring three-plus runs in an inning.
- Senior Ryan Higgins secured his first victory of the 2025 season, working 4.1 innings and striking out a career-high seven batters against Cornell.
- Sophomore Sam Harris hit his first career home run against the Big Red, a three-run shot to right field.
- Wallace Clark and AJ Gracia were the two Blue Devils with three hits in the contest, as Clark finished with a 3-for-3 line, three runs scored, and two walks, adding a RBI. Gracia finished with a 3-for-4 day, hitting his first home run of the season and driving in four runs.
- The Blue Devils drew 15 walks against Cornell on Saturday, tying the most since 2013, when Duke drew 15 walks against Army on February 15, 2020.
- Freshman Zach Jackson collected his first collegiate hit on Saturday, singling through the right side.
- On the pitching side, Roman DiGiacomo and Collins Black combined for four total strikeouts in the final two innings of play, as Black accounted for three of them. The two also recorded their first career punchouts on Saturday.
QUOTES
- "I liked our response. It starts with Ryan Higgins giving us a good start, which allowed us to get our feet underneath us. I thought our offensive approach was really good from the get-go, with Wallace Clark having the at-bat to lead off the ballgame. We got the two-out hit, which allowed the pressure valve to release a little bit. We did a good job of keeping our foot on the gas throughout the ballgame. We talked about it in our pregame meeting, I challenged our guys and said look, we are going to have a moment in this ballgame where we are going to face adversity. Let's be glad for it, let's be grateful for it and lets do a great job of responding. There in the top of the fifth, they mounted their answer, and Higgins ran out of gas a little bit and Reid Easterly came in. It took Wally making a play to get us off the field, but then we had an answer in the bottom half and kept pouring it on. The thing I like is we kept the scoreboard clean the rest of the way. Edward Hart comes in and has a good inning. Roman DiGiacomo comes in and has a good inning. Collins Black kept the scoreboard clean there at the end, so we will look to build off of that." – Head coach Chris Pollard on tonight's response.
- "I have been really really lucky and blessed to be around a ton of great players that have come through here and a ton of great assistant coaches. It is such a reflection of those guys and the people I've been able to work with." – Head coach Chris Pollard on surpassing Jack Coombs for the Blue Devils all-time wins lead.
UP NEXT
- Duke and Cornell conclude the three-game set on Sunday afternoon from Jack Coombs Field. First pitch is scheduled for noon.
For more information on Duke Baseball, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "DukeBASE".
#GoDuke
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Higgins, Ryan (1-0)
L: Noah Keller (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Caden Wildman 1
RBI: Kyle Musser 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Kevin Hager 1 ; Owen Carlson 1
SB: Max Jensen 1
HBP: Owen Carlson 1 ; Luke Johnson 1
Batting:
2B: Clark, Wallace 2 ; Rounds, Ben 1
HR: Gracia, AJ 1 ; Berger, Jake 1 ; Harris, Sam 1
RBI: Clark, Wallace 1 ; Rounds, Ben 2 ; Miller, Ben 2 ; Murray, Noah 1 ; Gracia, AJ 4 ; Berger, Jake 1 ; Lougee, Jeff 1 ; Johnson, Kyle 1 ; Harris, Sam 3
SF: Miller, Ben 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Clark, Wallace 3 ; Bell, Andrew 1 ; Rounds, Ben 1 ; Jackson, Zach 1 ; Gracia, AJ 1 ; Berger, Jake 2 ; Albright, Tyler 2 ; Hyde, Jake 3 ; Johnson, Kyle 1 ; Harris, Sam 1
SB: Gracia, AJ 1
HBP: Gracia, AJ 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
3
H
3
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
ph/cf
AB
1
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
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RHP
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C/RHP
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LHP
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1B/OF
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LHP
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RHP
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OF
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OF/LHP
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INF
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