App State baseball was back in action on Tuesday as they traveled to Durham to face off against the Duke Blue Devils. App State lost the match 8-4 due to a 7-run third inning by the Blue Devils.
The loss is the fourth straight versus Duke in many years, but a 4-run difference is much improvement from the 28-2 thrashing that the Blue Devils put on the Mountaineers just last season. The loss also moves App State to 5-12 on the road this season, but the team is still holding strong in the Sun Belt in 4th place.
Junior outfielder Charlie Evans and sophomore first baseman Kameron Miller both led the Black and Gold as they went 2-3 and 2-4 in their at-bats, respectively. Miller added a double and an RBI to accompany a .500 day.
Duke started their season with a preseason ranking of 12 per the USA Today’s coaches poll, but an up-and-down season has seen them fall from the rankings since March 3. The win over the Mountaineers ended a two-game slide for the Blue Devils after dropping a series to Miami.
The action started slowly, with no batters reaching the bases in the first 2 innings before a fiery start to the third inning by the Mountaineers. Freshman utility player Riley Luft doubled at the top of the third to bring home redshirt sophomore catcher Graham Smiley, who walked in the prior at-bat.
Evans followed the double with a bunt that moved him to first and Luft to third but Duke’s defense came up with a double play in the following at bat to out Evans at second and redshirt sophomore infielder Jonathan Xuereb at first. Luft scored on the play to give the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead. Duke got out of the inning after a fly ball to left field.
Duke got in on the action with a 1-run home run on their second at-bat of the inning before three out of the next four batters brought runs in on their at-bats. Duke used 2 doubles from two different batters to bring in 3 runs before a 3-run homerun was launched to right field as the Blue Devils extended their lead to 6-2. App State got out of the inning on a pop fly and a ground out to first.
The App State defense did their job in the following 3 innings, only allowing 2 hits to 13 batters but the offense was anything but exciting, only mustering 2 singles in the same time frame. The Black and Gold offense was still at a standstill at the top of the seventh before Duke used a double to bring in another run and extend their lead to 8-2.
The offense got their first multi-hit inning and first run since the second inning, as Miller brought home Xuereb and a line drive to give the Mountaineers their third run of the game. After a ground out ended App State’s inning, Duke got two straight singles to kick off the bottom of the eighth. A strong end to the inning for App State’s defense left the bases loaded and no runs for the Blue Devils in the eighth inning.
With App State down 5, hits were needed immediately, but a strikeout to start the inning was more of the same from the offense. A walk followed for the first batter before Smiley came up to bat for a double that brought the runner on base home. App State cut the lead to 4.
As the run scored, the Mountaineer dugout seemed ready for a ninth inning rally, but a ground out from Luft and a strikeout from senior catcher Braxton Church left Smiley stuck at third when the game ended. App State lost 8-4 as they were out hit 13-7.
