Duke Falls to NC State on Saturday

Saturday, March 29

Durham, N.C.

3 p.m.

Duke University

18-10, 6-5

NC State

18-9, 5-3

NC State

Duke

Duke Falls to NC State on Saturday

3/29/2025 8:29:00 PM | Baseball

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

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke baseball (18-10, 6-5 ACC) had its six-game winning streak snapped on Saturday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field, falling to NC State (18-9, 5-3 ACC), 14-6.

The Blue Devils opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning, as Wallace Clark hit his second leadoff home run to start a contest and third to lead off an inning for Duke this season. Later in the frame, Jake Hyde grounded into a double play to score Jake Berger from third, 2-0.

The Wolfpack would respond in the top of the second inning, scoring four runs to take the lead. Junior Tyler Albright cut the deficit to one in the bottom of the third inning, singling up the middle to score Clark from third, 4-3, before NC State extended the lead back to 5-3.

Duke tied the ballgame in the bottom of the fifth inning as Ben Rounds doubled to the gap in left center, 5-5. NC State scored in the next four innings to push the lead to 14-6. Junior Andrew Healy was pegged with the loss, falling to 2-3 on the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning, Wallace Clark hit a leadoff home run to right center field. Jake Hyde grounded into a double play to score Jake Berger from third, 2-0.
NC State took the lead in the top of the second inning, 4-2.
In the bottom of the third inning, Tyler Albright singled up the middle to score Clark from third, 4-3.
The Wolfpack added a run in the top of the fifth inning, 5-3.
Duke tied the ballgame in the bottom of the fifth inning as Ben Rounds doubled to the gap in left center, 5-5.
NC State regained the lead in the top of the sixth inning, 7-5.
The Wolfpack added a run in the top of the seventh inning, 8-5.
NC State added to their lead in the top of the eighth inning, 12-5.
In the top of the ninth inning, the Wolfpack added to their lead, 14-5.
Duke scratched across a run in the bottom of the ninth, 14-6.

NOTES

Senior Wallace Clark extended his reached base safely streak on Saturday to 28 games, hitting his third leadoff home run of the season and second when leading off the game. Clark finished the day 2-for-3 with three runs scored, two walks, a double, and a home run.
Graduate Ben Miller extended his hitting streak to 11 games on Saturday, finishing the afternoon 1-for-3. Miller also added a walk and was one of three Blue Devils to stretch their streaks on the year. Joining the Durham, N.C., native was Tyler Albright (eight games) and Clark (four games).
Along with Clark, graduate Jake Berger (19 games) and Miller (14 games) extended their reached base safely streaks.
Junior Andrew Healy started on the bump for the Blue Devils working five innings for the second consecutive weekend in a row. He and junior Owen Proksch become the first Duke pitchers to record outings on back-to-back days of five innings or more this season. Healy was pegged with the loss on Saturday, allowing six runs to cross with two punchouts.

QUOTES

"I told our guys that it was a five-five game in the fifth and they got stops over the last four innings and we didn't get any stops. Credit to Anderson Nance, he did a heck of a job for them out of the bullpen, and we had a hard time stringing anything together against him. He made pitches when he had to, and we didn't make those kinds of pitches over the back half of the ballgame." – Head coach Chris Pollard on his overall thoughts on Saturday's contest.
"Absolutely. I think there are two pieces you can take out of the ninth inning. Take the job by Collins Black of really shutting their offense down and taking the momentum back there and then we did a nice job of griding out at-bats and we need to carry that over to tomorrow." – On using a strong ninth inning and putting the pressure on the NC State defense to carry into Sunday.

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