Duke’s Recent Pitching Efforts Hurting The Blue Devils

CHAPEL HILL, N.C – The North Carolina Tar Heels (17-13 ACC) snagged a series-clinching victory over the Duke Blue Devils (13-15 ACC) 21-8 on Monday evening at Boshamer Stadium. 

Duke’s offensive production was certainly good enough to win the game. Tallying up three runs in the first two innings and eight total, including three home runs. However, it would not make a difference, while matching 21 runs is a challenging task to accomplish. 

The Blue Devils’ lack of pitching efficiency and poor defensive play were the two main factors why they were defeated with ease.

In their loss yesterday, Duke had to utilize their bullpen as three pitchers appeared in the game after starter Jack Carey logged in five innings of work. The Blue Devils desperately needed at least four to five effective innings from their big righty Cooper Stinson, but unfortunately, he struggled mightily despite having an early 2-0 advantage. Duke finished the game going through six different pitchers, making it even more challenging for a team that has to play their fourth consecutive game on Tuesday.

In his eighth start, Stinson had trouble with the command of all of his pitches in his arsenal. He lasted just one inning allowing two hits, five earned runs, two walks, a hit batter, and a strikeout on 38 pitches. The loss gave him his second of the 2021 campaign.

The Duke junior would begin the game with a walk and a hit batter. It quickly put two men on base with no outs for UNC’s shortstop Danny Serretti. Serretti who homered yesterday, remained red hot as he connected on an RBI double to open up the scoring for the Tar Heels. The Duke pitching effort would not improve as two batters later, Stinson fell behind the count 3-0 once again on Tomas Frick. Fick jumped on a fastball to launch a three-run home run for his second of the season to take a 4-2 lead after one inning.

Stinson’s night ended after walking the leadoff batter Will Schroeder in the second inning. The early exit forced manager Chris Pollard to signal in his left-handed reliever Josh Allen for the second straight day. Fatigue looked to have played a factor for Allen. He immediately allowed three hits to begin his appearance, including a two-run home run from Dallas Tessar. Allen would finish the inning giving up four total runs to make it a 9-3 ballgame. 

Allen did not receive much help. The Devils defense committed multiple errors that turned into two unearned runs. The sloppy play in the field did not make the struggling pitcher’s jobs any easier. At that stage of the game, a four-run deficit would have been more reasonable to overcome than a six-run deficit. 

Luke Fox, Billy Seidl, and Colten Smith followed Allen and allowed a combined 11 hits and 12 earned runs, including nine runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Junior Kyle Salley made his second appearance of the season in the seventh inning. He was the only Devils pitcher to post a zero in the run column. Tossing two hitless innings along with three strikeouts.

Despite the tough defeat, Duke will head back to Durham to host Campbell tomorrow, April 13th, at 6:00 pm at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. With the hope that they get better production from their pitching staff and defense.