No. 7 Duke Falls in Extras on Saturday

Saturday, April 20

Blacksburg, Va.

7 p.m.

Duke University

28-11, 12-8

Virginia Tech

25-11, 12-8

Duke

Virginia Tech

No. 7 Duke Falls in Extras on Saturday

4/20/2024 11:53:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes (PDF)

BLACKSBURG, Va. – No. 7 Duke (28-11, 12-8 ACC) fell to No. 23 Virginia Tech (25-11, 12-8 ACC), 2-1, at English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Field in 11 innings.

The Blue Devils struck first in the top of the third inning as Ben Miller doubled to the right center field gap to score Wallace Clark from first base. The hit extended Miller's hitting streak to 16 games and tied his single season career high with 65 hits on the season.

Freshman Kyle Johnson started on the bump for the Blue Devils, working a career high 5.1 innings. He allowed three hits and one run to score, while tying a career high with six strikeouts. Junior Ryan Higgins worked 3.1 innings on the mound in relief for Duke, allowing three hits and striking out a pair of Hokies.

HOW IT HAPPENED

In the top of the third inning, Ben Miller doubled to right center field scoring Wallace Clark from first, 1-0.
Virginia Tech tied the ballgame in the bottom of the fourth inning, 1-1.
The Hokies scored in the bottom of the 11th inning, 2-1.

NOTES

With Duke and Virginia Tech playing extra innings once again on Saturday, it marked the first time since 2015 that the Blue Devils had participated in back-to-back extra-inning games.
Graduate Ben Miller extended his hitting streak to 16 games, tying the longest by any Blue Devil this season.
Freshman Kyle Johnson posted a career day on the mound for the Blue Devils, working a career high 5.1 innings, allowing one run on three hits and tying a career high with six punchouts.
Junior Ryan Higgins tossed 3.1 scoreless innings for Duke out of the bullpen, striking out two batters.

QUOTES

"Just an unbelievable job by our pitching staff of competing tonight. I thought Kyle Johnson pitched a great start and Jimmy getting him off the field in the sixth was huge. That is the best I have seen Ryan Higgins throw in a Duke uniform. James Tallon gets him off in the 10th and I was really proud of Fran. After we give them two freebies to start the inning, he did everything he needed to do to get off the field right there and we just didn't make a play and that's baseball. We have a rubber match game tomorrow and we can feel sorry for ourselves about the ending of this game for the next hour or two and then wake up tomorrow morning and compete in a rubber match and have been really good in these situations." – Head coach Chris Pollard on his overall thoughts on tonight.

UP NEXT

Duke and Virginia Tech close out the three-game set on Sunday afternoon from English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

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