Duke Splits Sunday Doubleheader with Virginia

Sunday, March 13

Durham, N.C.

1:00 P.M.

Duke University

8-7, 0-2

Virginia

14-0, 2-0

Virginia

Duke

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Duke Splits Sunday Doubleheader with Virginia

3/13/2022 9:09:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 GAME ONE BOX SCORE (PDF)GAME TWO BOX SCORE (PDF)SEASON STATS Coach Pollard Postgame - Virginia Game 3

DURHAM – The Duke baseball team split a doubleheader against Virginia on Sunday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C.

In game one, the Blue Devils dropped a 13-1 decision, but came back in the second game to collect a 7-6 victory to move to 9-7 overall and 1-2 in the ACC. Duke handed the Cavaliers their first loss of the season as Virginia is now 14-1, 2-1.

Chad Knight paced the Blue Devils on the day going 4-9 with 2 RBI, a double and a home run.

Game One: Virginia 13, Duke 1

Virginia opened the contest with six runs over the first three innings to jump out to an early lead. The Blue Devils added a run in the bottom of the first as junior Chad Knight blasted his second home run of the season over the left field wall.

The Cavaliers notched four runs in the top of the fifth to take a 10-1 lead. The Blue Devils tried to mount a rally in the fifth as Andrew Yu walked, Damon Lux singled and Will Hoyle walked to load the bases with no outs, but were unable to bring anyone across the plate.

Knight and Graham Pauley each led Duke with two hits on the day.

Luke Fox started the game for the Blue Devils and went 2.1 innings, before Jonathan Santucci came in relief for two innings. Freshman Ryan Higgins entered with the bases loaded in the sixth and retired all three batters. Matthew Dockman and Caleb McRoy also saw action with one and two innings, respectively, without allowing a run. McRoy fanned four of six batters faced.

Virginia's Brian Gursky went five innings on the mound allowing only one run through five innings to move to 4-0 on the season. The Cavaliers were able to hold the Blue Devils scoreless over the final eight innings.

Game Two: Duke 7, Virginia 6

Making his first career start at Duke, Trevor Johnson went 3-3 with four RBI, two doubles, a home run and hit by pitch to lead the Blue Devils to a 7-6 victory.

Duke came out and got on the board in the bottom of the first as Chris Davis walked and Knight doubled to left to score Davis. Pauley scored Knight on a fielder's choice to put the Blue Devils ahead, 2-0.

In the second inning, the Blue Devils added two more runs as Alex Stone reached on an error and then Johnson belted a 386-foot home run to give Duke a 4-0 lead. A product of Rye, N.Y., Johnson collected his first home run as a Blue Devil.

On the bump for Duke, Billy Seidl retired the first 10 Virginia batters, before allowing a run in the top of the fourth. The Cavaliers added three more runs in the top of the fifth to even the score, 4-4.

In the seventh, Luke Storm and Stone were hit by pitches to open the inning, before Johnson doubled to left center to score two runs. Duke added another run on a Knight single to right field to give the Blue Devils a 7-4 advantage.

John Natoli came on in the fifth out of the bullpen and closed the door, while finishing with 1.1 scoreless innings. Jimmy Loper held the Cavaliers scoreless over his first 2.2 innings, earning the win.

Knight had another solid contest for Duke going 2-5 with a double and RBI.

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