Duke Falls 4-1 In Opener At Maryland

Friday, April 17

College Park, Md.

7:00 PM

Duke University

Maryland

Duke Falls 4-1 In Opener At Maryland

4/17/2009 9:30:00 PM | Baseball

By: Duke Sports Information

COLLEGE PARK, Md. ? Maryland starter Scott Swinson won a pitcher's duel against Duke starter Andrew Wolcott to lead the Terrapins to a 4-1 win over Duke in the series opener Friday evening at Shipley Field.

Swinson (3-5) got all but the final out of the game and held Duke (26-14, 9-10 ACC) to one run and five hits over 8.2 innings. He shut out the Blue Devils over his first eight innings, giving up just three hits during that span, all of which were infield singles. Swinson struck out six batters and walked one before handing the ball to reliever Dan Gentzler, who entered the game with men at the corners with two outs in the ninth and rolled a ground ball to end the game and lock up his second save.

Swinson's effort was enough to outduel Wolcott (5-3), who went a career-long eight complete innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts. Wolcott gave up a run in the first inning, but then held the Terps (17-20, 5-14 ACC) scoreless until the bottom of the eighth. Wolcott did not walk a single batter until the eighth inning, but surrendered three free passes during that frame and allowed Maryland to put up three two-out runs. Wolcott's complete game was the first by a Blue Devil pitcher since Tony Bajoczky threw nine innings against Maryland on April 21, 2007.

Maryland third baseman Mike Murphy finished with three hits, the first of which banged off the left field wall in the first inning for a double that sent in the Terps' first run of the game. Left fielder Mike Kozak, who entered the game in the seventh inning, also delivered a two-out, bases-loaded double in the bottom of the eighth inning that put Maryland on top 4-0.

Left fielder Jeremy Gould provided Duke's lone RBI on a groundout in the top of the ninth inning. He had two hits in the game, both of which were infield singles.

After Swinson struck out two of the three batters he faced in a quick first inning, the Terrapins gave their starter a 1-0 lead on Murphy's double. Murphy hammered his two-bagger down the left field line where Gould chased it down on the warning track, but could not make the catch as it flew just over his glove and bounced off the wall. Murphy's double should have come with nobody on base, but instead scored leadoff man David Poutier, who struck out swinging but reached base on a third-strike wild pitch. That punchout would be the first four in the inning for Wolcott, who got A.J. Casario looking and Will Greenberg and Mike Moss swinging.

The Blue Devils got their first hit of the game from second baseman Gabriel Saade in the second inning, but had it quickly erased on an inning-ending double play. Fortunately for Duke, however, Wolcott made quick work of Maryland in the bottom of the second and recorded his fifth strikeout as part of a 1-2-3 inning.

The pitcher's duel extended into the fourth inning after Wolcott retired his 10th straight batter and Swinson scattered one Duke single through the third and fourth. Wolcott fanned another batter in the top half of the fourth, giving him six punchouts despite having a pitch count of just 51. Through his first four innings, Wolcott had let just one Maryland's first 15 hitters reach on his own. Duke had a chance to tie the game after Gould reached second on an infield single and an ensuing throwing error on the play by Murphy, but was left stranded after Swinson got two straight outs to end the threat.

Wolcott saw his consecutive batters retired streak end at 10 when he gave up two straight singles in the top of the fifth on consecutive singles from Gerry Spessard and Jensen Pupa. Despite having two men on and no outs, however, the Terps could still not get to Wolcott as he retired three straight batters ? striking out one ? to end the threat and strand both runners.

Swinson was able to match Wolcott's performance, however, and allowed just three Duke singles through his first seven innings of work. He struck out five during that span while throwing 70 pitches and keeping Duke scoreless. Gould had two of those knocks, but both were infield hits.

Wolcott continued his dominance into the seventh inning, scattering two singles in the sixth and seventh while matching a career high with his ninth strikeout of the game. Wolcott fanned the final two batters he faced in the sixth inning, matching the career-best total he set against the same Maryland team in 2007. Wolcott had still yet to allow a walk in the game and had a pitch count of 80 heading into the top of the eighth.

Duke was still unable to give Wolcott any run support, however, and had another chance foiled when Swinson picked off pinch runner Tom Luciano at first base. Luciano swapped spots on first base with designated hitter Eric Pfisterer after Pfisterer drew a walk. Luciano beat Swinson's first six attempts back to first base, but finally got caught by the Maryland right-hander for the third out of the inning.

Wolcott stayed on the mound in the ninth and sat down the first batter he faced, but then began to battle fatigue and wrapped two walks around another Murphy single to load the bases with two out. He battled pinch hitter Curtis Lazar into a full count, but did not get the call on a borderline fastball that was called ball four to give Lazar and RBI walk. Maryland then tacked on two more runs to jump ahead 4-0 on a bases-loaded double by Mike Rozak, who entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning.

Down to their final three outs, the top of Duke's lineup did its best to close the deficit, but managed just one run before Gentzler came out to close out the game. Gould drove in McCurdy to break up the shutout before a pair of singles from Williams and Hassan put runners at the corners with two outs. With the tying run then coming to the plate in the form of Saade, Maryland called on Gentlzler to get out the jam. The junior right-hander did his job by getting Saade to roll a ground ball to shortstop David Poutier, who flipped it to fellow middle infielder Matthew Murakami to force out Hassan at second base for the final out.

Duke will have a chance to even up the series on Saturday in game two, which will begin at 4 p.m. at Shipley Field. Duke will throw left-hander Christopher Manno (3-4, 5.27 ERA), while the Terps will counter with the right-handed Brett Harman (3-4, 5.70 ERA).

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