Duke Falls To No. 6 North Carolina In ACC Tournament Opener

Wednesday, May 20

Durham, N.C. (Durham Bulls Athletic Park)

8:00 PM

Duke University

North Carolina

Duke Falls To No. 6 North Carolina In ACC Tournament Opener

5/20/2009 11:45:00 PM | Baseball

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. ? Adam Warren scattered six hits and three runs over a career-long 8.1 innings to lead second-seeded North Carolina to an 8-3 win over seventh-seeded Duke on the opening day of the ACC Baseball Championship Wednesday evening at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Warren (7-2) took a shutout into the sixth inning before Duke senior Matt Williams broke it up with an RBI single. That was one of the few blemishes on Warren's outing, however, which included seven strikeouts and 121 pitches.

Warren got plenty of run support, including a two-home run, four-RBI day from ACC Player of the Year Dustin Ackley. Ackley ripped home runs in his first and fourth at bats on the way to a 3-for-5 performance that accounted for half of North Carolina's runs. Kyle Seager also banged out three hits and an RBI, while center fielder Mike Cavasinni tripled and scored twice out of the nine hole.

Two of the three runs Warren allowed came in after he left the game with one out in the ninth inning. After going the first eight innings without issuing a walk, Warren dished out a leadoff walk to Duke three-hitter Nate Freiman in the ninth and then surrendered a double to cleanup hitter Jeremy Gould. While Gould's two-bagger kept his 20-game hit streak alive, it also set the table for a two-run single from sophomore shortstop Jake Lemmerman, who drove in both runs with his third hit of the game. Lemmerman, who entered the game hitting .298 against ACC teams, extended his hitting streak to five games and now has two doubles, a home run and four RBI during that stretch.

The offensive rally in the top of the ninth came too late for the Blue Devils (34-23, 0-1 ACC Championship), however, after North Carolina (42-14, 1-0 ACC Championship) jumped out to a two-run lead in the first inning that they never relinquished. The Tar Heels scored four runs off of Duke starter Christopher Manno (5-6) before Duke went to the bullpen in the sixth. North Carolina added four more runs over the final four innings, two of which came on Ackley's sixth-inning homer.

Ackley put North Carolina on the board just two at bats into the game by ripping a 2-0 fastball into the right field stands. Ackley's solo homer was the first of four hits in the inning by the Tar Heels, who went up 2-0 on an RBI infield single from freshman Levi Michael. Michael came to the plate with the three-hitter Seager on third base after he followed Ackley's home run with a double and a stolen base. Michael then slapped a ground ball to the left side that Lemmerman was able to glove in the hole, but could not get to first base in time for the out. After surrendering another single to Garrett Gore, Manno settled in and picked off Michael at second base for the second out before striking out Mark Fleury with a two-strike slider.

Manno was much more effective in the bottom of the second and retired the side in order. After throwing 26 pitches in the first inning, Manno needed just 11 to get through the second. He induced two groundouts in that frame and also struck out Jacob Stallings by getting him to chase a fastball that he placed on the outside part of the plate.

Warren, meanwhile, gave up just one hit over his first three innings of work, which was a leadoff single to Lemmerman in the second innings. Duke continued to put the ball in play against the Tar Heel right-hander and struck out just once, but could get nothing past the North Carolina defense.

Duke turned it up defensively as well in the bottom of the third when Lemmerman made a diving play on an infield popup with the bases loaded to keep Duke out of any further damage. With the bases loaded and two outs, Fleury fisted a weakly-hit popup behind second base that was placed perfectly between Lemmerman and second baseman Gabriel Saade. Lemmerman, however, broke for the ball on contact and covered just enough ground to put himself within six feet of the ball, which was on its way to becoming a two-out RBI infield single. Lemmerman left his feet at the last second and caught the ball in the web of his outstretched glove to record the third out and leave all three Tar Heels on base.

Lemmerman turned around and struck a two-out double to the left field warning track in the top of the fourth, but was left stranded at second when Warren got out of the jam with a groundout. The double was the second hit of the game for Lemmerman, who entered the game hitting .298 against ACC teams.

Ben Bunting matched Lemmerman with a leadoff double in the bottom of the fourth and scored two at bats later when Cavasinni ripped his one-out triple off the right field wall. That three-bagger then set up Ackley for an RBI groundout that ran North Carolina's lead to 4-0 heading into the fifth inning.

Warren kept the shutout alive by retiring all three Duke hitters he faced in the fifth inning. After striking out just one Blue Devil in his first four innings, Warren fanned two in the fifth and had still yet to allow a walk.

Duke broke that scoreless streak up in the top of the sixth, however, thanks to a leadoff double from Alex Hassan and an ensuing RBI single from Williams. But just as Duke was on the verge of a rally, Michael killed it with a diving play on a popup in the outfield that he converted into a double play. With Williams on first after his single, Freiman slapped a popup to right field that Michael chased down and dove toward the outfield to catch. Williams took off for second base before Michael made the catch and could not get back to first in time when Michael popped up and two-hopped a throw back to Ackley to finish the double play.

Ackley got that run back for the Tar Heels in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run homer that ran North Carolina's lead to 6-1. Ackley's bomb came with two outs and just cleared the right field wall for his second long ball of the day. He hit number two off of Dennis O'Grady, who entered the game to start the inning.

Warren made quick work of the Blue Devils in the seventh and eighth and retired all six batters he faced during that span. Warren used a combined 17 pitches to retire the side in each innings, bringing his pitch count to 107 heading into the bottom of the eight. His defense sacrificed in another run in the bottom of the seventh on a squeeze play to give him a 7-1 lead before he handed the ball over in the ninth inning.

Duke called on senior right-hander Kyle Butler to take over for O'Grady with two outs in the seventh. Butler got the final two outs in that inning and went on to strike out Ackley for the first out in the eighth. After striking out the reigning ACC Player Of The Year, however, Butler gave up an RBI double to Seager that pushed North Carolina's lead to 8-1 before he rebounded to end the inning with two straight outs.

Down to their final three outs, Duke's bats finally heated up and drove in two final runs to cut the deficit to 8-3. The first three Blue Devil hitters reached base, including Lemmerman who rapped out his third hit of the ball game to send in both runs. Unfortunately for Duke, however, reliever Colin Bates rolled two straight groundouts to end the game.

Duke will resume the round-robin opening round of the ACC Tournament on Friday, May 22. Duke will face third-seeded Clemson at 4 p.m. before taking on sixth-seeded Virginia on Saturday at 8 p.m. Friday's game will feature Duke right-hander Andrew Wolcott (7-3, 2.79 ERA) against a Clemson starter who will be announced later.

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