Proksch's Career Day Guides Duke to Series Opening Win Thursday

Thursday, April 17

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

26-14, 10-9

Pitt

18-17, 5-11

Pittsburgh

Duke

Proksch's Career Day Guides Duke to Series Opening Win Thursday

4/17/2025 11:02:00 PM | Baseball

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

DURHAM, N.C. – Junior left-handed pitcher Owen Proksch set the tone from the first pitch of the ballgame on Thursday evening, as Duke (26-14, 10-9 ACC) defeated Pittsburgh (18-17, 5-11 ACC) 9-1 at Jack Coombs Field.

Proksch enjoyed a career day on the mound, working six innings of three-hit baseball while adding nine strikeouts to his line. The southpaw retired his first eight batters of the game, including tying a career high with six punchouts through the first 2.1 innings of work. In the top of the third inning, he worked around his lone two walks, stranding the bases loaded to keep the Panthers off the scoreboard.

Duke opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning as Macon Winslow singled through the right side to score Jake Hyde from third. Sam Harris hit a three-run home run to right field, pushing the score to 4-0 in favor of the Blue Devils.

In the fifth, Winslow reached on a fielder's choice to score Hyde once again, before Harris reached on a fielder's choice and advanced to second on an error to score Ben Rounds from second, 6-0. The Blue Devils added to the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Ben Miller hit his league-leading 16th home run of the season, a solo shot to right field. A pair of hit-by-pitches and a bases-loaded walk extended the Duke lead to 9-0 before the Panthers scratched across a run in the top of the ninth.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning, as Macon Winslow singled through the right side to score Jake Hyde from third. Sam Harris hit a three-run home run to right field, 4-0.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Winslow reached on a fielder's choice to score Hyde. Harris grounded into a fielder's choice, and an error scored Ben Rounds from second, 6-0.
The Blue Devils added to the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Ben Miller hit a solo home run to right field, 7-0.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Wallace Clark was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and AJ Gracia walked to score a pair, 9-0.

NOTES

Junior left-hander Owen Proksch tossed a career outing on Thursday against the Panthers, working a career-high six innings and punching out nine batters. He allowed a base hit in the top of the seventh inning before being removed. The 96 pitches are the most the junior has thrown in an outing during his three-year career.
Duke improved to 213-70 (.753) when scoring first and 235-52 (.819) when scoring three-plus runs in an inning since 2016.
Sophomore catcher Macon Winslow finished the evening 2-for-4 with two RBI and two walks scored, pushing his hitting streak to eight games. It is the longest active streak on the team at the moment. Winslow was one of three Blue Devils with multiple hits, as Ben Rounds (2) and Jake Hyde (2) notched two-hit days.
Graduate Ben Miller hit an opposite-field home run on Thursday, setting a new career high for home runs in a season. His 16 long balls lead the ACC and are in the top five in the country.

QUOTES

"I thought we did a good job offensively of figuring out Demi after we didn't recognize the changeup at all in the first inning. Credit to him, it was a Bugs Bunny change. I thought we had a good switch in the second, and Owen Proksch did the rest. He was really good and had command of three pitches. It was the first time since he had moved into that role that he was able to get his changeup working. He was getting swings and misses on three different pitches and I thought his compete factor was really high. It was a big shot in the arm for us to see him work into the seventh inning." - Head coach Chris Pollard on his overall thoughts on the ballgame tonight.

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