No. 11 Duke Falls to Cincinnati on Opening Day

Friday, February 14

Durham, N.C.

4 p.m.

Duke University

0-1

Cincinnati

1-0

Cincinnati

Duke

No. 11 Duke Falls to Cincinnati on Opening Day

2/14/2025 7:50:00 PM | Baseball

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

DURHAM – No. 11 Duke (0-1) fell to Cincinnati (1-0), 8-3, on Friday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field.

In the bottom of the first inning, Ben Miller opened the scoring and hit the first home run of the season, a solo shot to left field to give Duke a 1-0. The Bearcats responded in the top of the second, tying the game, before Andrew Yu gave Duke the lead with the second of three solo home runs, 2-1.

Cincinnati responded with a three spot and continued to pile on in the top of the eighth inning, 8-3.

Junior Tyler Albright collected his first home run of the season, a solo home run to left center field. Sophomore Kyle Johnson tossed four innings on the mound, allowing five hits, five runs, three earned, and punched out four. Graduate transfer Reid Easterly came on in relief in the fifth inning, tossing four strong innings and punching out five batters.

Freshman Henry Zatkowski worked the final inning in relief for the Blue Devils, collecting his first two collegiate strikeouts in the process.

HOW IT HAPPENED

In the bottom of the first inning, Ben Miller hit a solo home run to left field, 1-0.
Cincinnati tied the ballgame in the top of the second inning on an error, 1-1.
Duke took the lead in the bottom of the second inning, as Andrew Yu hit a solo home run, 2-1.
The Bearcats added three runs in the inning to regain the lead, 4-2.
Cincinnati hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning, 5-2.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Tyler Albright hit a solo home run to left center field, 5-3.
The Bearcats added three runs in the top of the eighth inning, 8-3.

NOTES

Sophomore Kyle Johnson made his first Opening Day start on Friday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field, working four innings and allowing three earned runs to pass. He punched out four batters and walked two to close out his outing.
Graduate transfer Reid Easterly worked four solid innings out of the bullpen, allowing one hit and striking out five batters.
Freshman Henry Zatkowski made his collegiate debut, tossing a clean inning in the ninth and recording his first two strikeouts.
Three Blue Devils left the ballpark on Friday, as Ben Miller, Andrew Yu, and Tyler Albright all hit solo home runs. Albright finished the day 2-for-3 with a run scored and a walk.
Graduate Ben Rounds led off for Duke in Friday's Opening Day contest, going 2-for-5 with a double in his Blue Devils debut.

QUOTES

"I just tip my hat to Cincinnati. They outplayed us in all three phases. They came in tonight better prepared than we were. They executed on the mound, played sound defense, and did a great job of taking advantage of some free offense. I thought they sped us up a little bit in the third, we didn't handle the bunt well. We discussed it in practice and executed it, but we didn't handle it well. You had the two bunt plays and three hit by pitches, and they did a good job of taking advantage of that." – Head coach Chris Pollard said on Opening Day.

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