Duke Falls to California in ACC Opener

Friday, March 7

Durham, N.C.

4 p.m.

Duke University

8-6, 0-1

California

7-6, 1-0

California

Duke

Duke Falls to California in ACC Opener

3/7/2025 7:03:00 PM | Baseball

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

DURHAM – California (7-6, 1-0 ACC) scored seven runs in the first two innings, downing Duke (8-6, 0-1 ACC) in Friday's ACC opener, 14-1, at Jack Coombs Field.

The Golden Bears opened the scoring from the jump, sending eight batters to the plate and scoring five runs in the frame. Senior Wallace Clark led off his second consecutive game with a home run, cutting the deficit to four.

Sophomore left-hander Kyle Johnson was pegged with his third loss of the season, falling to 1-3. He worked 1.1 innings, allowing seven runs on five hits. Freshman Henry Zatkowski tossed two innings in relief, allowing four runs on five hits, while adding three strikeouts.

Cal continued to pile on the runs, extending their lead throughout the ballgame to 14-1. On the mound, Austin Turkington, improved to 2-2 on the season, tossing a complete-game against the Blue Devils.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Cal opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, 5-0.
In the bottom of the first inning, Wallace Clark hit a leadoff home run to right field, 5-1.
The Golden Bears added to the lead in the top of the second, 7-1.
Cal added to the lead in the top of the fourth inning, 12-1.
The Golden Bears tacked on a run in the top of the fifth inning, 13-1.
Cal added another run in the top of the sixth inning, 14-1.

NOTES

Senior Wallace Clark hit his second consecutive leadoff home run on Friday afternoon, a solo shot to right field.

QUOTES

"It is more confusing than anything. I would love to tell you I am frustrated and mad, and there is probably some of that in there, too, but the biggest emotion is confusion. Our personnel is better than what we performed today. They are a team that is coming into today hitting .233 as a team. They were hitting .177 against left-handed fastballs and hitting .164 against left-handed changeups. This was a good matchup for us on paper. Up and down their lineup, they have guys that are match-left, and that should allow us to use our strengths to our advantage. It is incredibly confusing to me that that was the end result. We are a lot better than that. I give credit to Cal; they took a lot of good swings tonight. I told our guys tonight that I believe very strongly in our personnel. I believe in our coaching staff; it's up to me as a head coach to put them in a better spot to be successful. I don't know any secret formula other than to go back and study the tape and see exactly what happened. Was it execution? Did we give something away at some point during the game? We have to learn from it, but at the same time, we have to show up tomorrow because it's a new day. The last thing I told the guys was this: Today only affects tomorrow if you allow it to. We have to be great at showing up tomorrow and making sure we don't have any leftover residual effects from what happened tonight." – Head coach Chris Pollard on overall thoughts on Friday's ACC opener against California.

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