Duke Completes Historic Sweep of No. 23 Virginia Sunday

Sunday, March 23

Charlottesville, VA

1 p.m.

Duke University

16-9, 5-4

Virginia

12-10, 3-6

Duke

Virginia

Duke Completes Historic Sweep of No. 23 Virginia Sunday

3/23/2025 7:05:00 PM | Baseball

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Duke baseball (16-9, 5-4 ACC) completed a historic sweep of the No. 23 Virginia Cavaliers (12-10, 3-6 ACC) on Sunday afternoon, clobbering the Hoos 13-6 at Davenport Field at Disharoon Park.

The sweep was the first the Cavaliers have suffered at home since 2021 when Notre Dame walked out of Charlottesville with three wins. It also marked the first sweep of Virginia for the Blue Devils since 1998 (home) and was the first in the 118-year history against UVA, that Duke did it in Charlottesville.

The Blue Devils jumped on the Cavaliers starter Evan Blanco in the first inning, as Tyler Albright walked with the bases loaded to score Wallace Clark. Macon Winslow added to the lead with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Jake Berger, 2-0.

Virginia immediately responded, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the inning off of freshman Henry Zatkowski. The southpaw would settle in and give Duke a clean frame in the bottom of the second, after Ben Miller doubled to left field to score a pair of Blue Devils, 4-2.

Duke went on to add to their lead in the third and fourth innings, scoring single runs during that stretch to build a 6-2 advantage. The Cavaliers mounted their comeback in the fifth and sixth innings, scoring three runs across those two innings to cut the lead to 6-5.

In the top of the seventh inning, Duke served what was ultimately the final blow for the Cavaliers, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs to push the lead to 12-5. Winslow put the cherry on top of the afternoon, blasting a solo home run to left field in the ninth.

Graduate Reid Easterly earned the win in relief, working 2.1 innings and allowing one unearned run to score. Easterly improves to 3-1 on the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, as Tyler Albright walked with the bases loaded to score Wallace Clark from third. Macon Winslow punched a sacrifice fly to center field to score Jake Berger from third, 2-0.
Virginia tied the ballgame in the bottom of the first inning, 2-2.
In the top of the second inning, Ben Miller doubled to left field and was thrown out at third trying to advance to score Clark and AJ Gracia, 4-2.
In the top of the third inning, Albright singled through the right side to score Jake Hyde from second, 5-2.
Duke added to the lead in the top of the fourth inning, as Miller grounded out to shortstop to score Clark from third, 6-2.
The Cavaliers cut into the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, 6-4.
Virginia cut the lead to one in the bottom of the sixth inning, 6-5.
After the Cavaliers cut the lead to one, Clark doubled to right center field in the top of the seventh inning to clear the bases loaded. Miller doubled to left center field to score a run, before Albright flew out to center field to score Berger from third. Winslow singled through the right side to score Miller from third, 12-5.
In the top of the ninth inning, Winslow hit a solo home run to left field, 13-5.

NOTES

Duke's three-game sweep of UVA was the first since 1998 when the Blue Devils swept the Cavaliers in Durham. It also marked the first time in the 118-year history against the two programs that Duke swept the Cavaliers in Charlottesville, Va. The Cavaliers had not been swept at home since 2021 when Notre Dame completed the sweep in Charlottesville.
The Blue Devils improved to 209-68 (.755) when scoring first and 229-50 (.821) when scoring three-plus runs in an inning since 2016.
Senior Wallace Clark moved into a tie for sixth all-time in hit-by-pitches, collecting his 10th of the season and 34th at Duke. Clark is now even with Matt Williams (2006-09) and Kennie Taylor (2016-19). With his line today, Clark continued his reached base safely streak to 25 games.
Duke improved to 44-1 since 2023 when scoring 10-plus runs in a contest and 8-0 in 2025.
The Blue Devils batted around in the seventh inning, scoring six runs for the first time in a frame since doing so against Florida State in the ACC Championship game. It marked the eighth time this season that Duke has batted around.
Four Blue Devils collected multi-hit contests on Sunday, as Ben Miller (3), Wallace Clark (2), Macon Winslow (2), and Ben Rounds (2) notched multi-hits. Miller's three-hit day was his 10th multi-hit effort and first three-hit day of the season. He added four RBI to his line, as Winslow tallied the lone home run for Duke.
Graduate Reid Easterly picked up his third win in relief, working 2.1 innings and allowing one unearned run to score. Easterly improved to 3-1 on the season.

QUOTES

"I am really proud of the response of our team this week. We showed a lot of toughness to come back after a cross-country flight and have a solid complete performance against a good UConn team. Then you go on the road against an Omaha caliber program. The thing I liked was we stayed hungry until the end. I think it would have been easy after winning the series yesterday to say, "hey that is a good weekend", but we kept our foot on the gas. I was impressed with our offense and the job they did against their best arms. We were able to piece it together and pick each other up on the mound. We knew it was going to be a whole staff day and guys stepped up." – Head coach Chris Pollard on the complete weekend the Blue Devils played.
"They had whittled their way back into the ballgame there in the sixth, 6-5 at that point. We had a great response against a great arm. O'Connor has been a weekend starter in this league, and he's working himself back to full strength. We just had a really good approach and strung good at bats against him to create some separation and we made it stand up." – On the offense responding in the seventh after Virginia cut the lead to one run in the sixth.

UP NEXT

Duke returns home to host East Carolina at Jack Coombs Field on Tuesday evening. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ACCN.

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