Eighth Inning Rally Lifts No. 10 Duke to Victory Over Longwood

Sunday, May 7

Durham, N.C.

1 PM

Duke University

32-13

Longwood

19-28

Longwood

Duke

Eighth Inning Rally Lifts No. 10 Duke to Victory Over Longwood

5/7/2023 5:13:00 PM | Baseball

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DURHAM – Junior Luke Storm drove in six of No. 10 Duke's (32-13) nine runs in the eighth inning, hitting two home runs in the frame to lift the Blue Devils over the Longwood Lancers (19-28), 13-9. Storm hit a two-run home run from the left side of the plate, before hitting a grand slam from the right side later in the inning.

HOW IT HAPPENED – GAME ONE

Longwood opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, 3-0.
Junior Alex Stone grounded out to second base to score Alex Mooney from third, 3-1.
The Lancers added to their lead in the top of the second, 4-1.
Longwood added a pair in the top of the third inning, 6-1.
The Lancers added a run in the top of the fourth, 7-1.
Junior Luke Storm singled to left field to score Stone from second, 7-2.
Stone singled to left field to cut the lead to 7-3 in the bottom of the fifth.
The Lancers added a pair in the top of the seventh, 9-3.
Graduate Damon Lux hit a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh, 9-4.
In the bottom of the eighth, Strom hit a two-run home run to cut the lead 9-6. Lux singled through the left side to score Tyler Albright from third, 9-7. Mooney singled through the left side and advanced to second on the throw to tie the ball game, 9-9. Storm hit his second home run of the inning, a grand slam, 13-9.

NOTES

Junior Alex Stone extended his hitting streak to 20 games against Longwood on Sunday, finishing the day 2-for-5 with two RBI.
Junior Luke Storm hit two home runs on Sunday, one from each side of the plate (two-run and grand slam). He finished the day 3-for-5 with seven RBI, tying MJ Metz form the most by a Blue Devil this season.
Freshman Owen Proksch improved to 5-2 on the season, collecting the win in relief for Duke.
The 81 home runs this season are tied for the third most in program history with the 1998 squad and are the most under head coach Chris Pollard. The Blue Devils are now nine home runs away from tying the program record of 90 set by the 1994 team.
Duke scored nine runs in the eighth inning on Sunday, the most since scoring nine runs in the eighth inning against Towson on March 21, 2023.

QUOTES

"This is a very resilient group. The energy level in our dugout when we were down 7-1, you would have thought we were up 7-1. The guys kept brining it. What a terrific job by Aidan Weaver to help calm the storm in the middle innings. We finally got the offense going late in that ballgame. You never know coming out of exams, and we had a great week of preparation, but coming out of exams there is this feeling out process that happens and I thought we were dealing with that early defensively." – Head coach Chris Pollard on the slow start and strong finish by the Blue Devils.
"I am really proud of Luke. The way he had to come through the valley and to be back in a place where he is now is amazing. He had two huge at bats for us today in that ballgame." – On the job Luke Storm has done staying the course throughout the season.

UP NEXT

No. 10 Duke continues the seven-game home stand on Tuesday evening at Jack Coombs Field. The Blue Devils host Rider with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m.

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