Completed Event: Baseball versus Murray State on June 9, 2025 , Loss , 4, to, 5
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Final
Baseball
4
vs Murray State
5
Saturday, May 10
Clemson, SC
2 p.m.
Duke University
34-16, 15-11
15
at
10
Clemson
38-14, 15-11
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Duke
1
1
2
0
1
0
10
0
0
15
13
4
Clemson
6
0
0
0
0
0
3
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1
10
10
1
10-Run Seventh Propels Duke to Series Leveling Win Over No. 9 Clemson
5/10/2025 9:15:00 PM | Baseball
CLEMSON, S.C. – Duke baseball's (34-16, 15-11 ACC) grit and toughness were on display on Saturday afternoon at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, as the Blue Devils rallied to erase a five-run deficit to down No. 9 Clemson (38-14, 15-11 ACC), 15-10, to level the series.Â
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Duke opened the scoring in the top of the first inning for the second consecutive day, as AJ Gracia hit a solo home run to right field, 1-0. The Tigers responded in the bottom half of the frame, scoring six runs to jump ahead early, 6-1.
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The Blue Devils began to chip away offensively, but the key spot for Duke was on the mound. Junior Gabe Nard tossed three hitless innings on the mound, silencing a Clemson offense that wouldn't go away. He punched out a career-high seven batters to allow Duke to get back into the ballgame.
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In the top of the second, Macon Winslow cut the deficit to four runs, with a solo home run to left field, before Gracia hit a towering home run to right field in the top of the third, 6-3. Later in the third, Ben Rounds singled through the right side to score Tyler Albright, 6-4.
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The deficit was cut to one run in the top of the fifth inning, as Rounds hit a solo home run to center field, 6-5. Both teams tossed zeros in the sixth before Duke loaded the bases in the top of the seventh. With two outs in the frame, an error by the second baseman allowed the tying run of Winslow to score. Duke found another gear, as Jake Hyde singled through the right side to score a pair, Rounds drew a bases-loaded walk, and Sam Harris singled up the middle to score two more. Jake Berger put the icing on a 10-run frame, doubling down the line in right, 15-6.Â
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Clemson scratched across three runs in the bottom of the seventh on two Duke errors, before Reid Easterly ended the frame. Graduate lefty Gavin Brown worked the final two frames of the contest, allowing one run on two hits and punching out three batters.Â
HOW IT HAPPENED
NOTESÂ
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QUOTESÂ
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UP NEXT
For more information on Duke Baseball, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "DukeBASE".
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#GoDuke
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Duke opened the scoring in the top of the first inning for the second consecutive day, as AJ Gracia hit a solo home run to right field, 1-0. The Tigers responded in the bottom half of the frame, scoring six runs to jump ahead early, 6-1.
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The Blue Devils began to chip away offensively, but the key spot for Duke was on the mound. Junior Gabe Nard tossed three hitless innings on the mound, silencing a Clemson offense that wouldn't go away. He punched out a career-high seven batters to allow Duke to get back into the ballgame.
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In the top of the second, Macon Winslow cut the deficit to four runs, with a solo home run to left field, before Gracia hit a towering home run to right field in the top of the third, 6-3. Later in the third, Ben Rounds singled through the right side to score Tyler Albright, 6-4.
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The deficit was cut to one run in the top of the fifth inning, as Rounds hit a solo home run to center field, 6-5. Both teams tossed zeros in the sixth before Duke loaded the bases in the top of the seventh. With two outs in the frame, an error by the second baseman allowed the tying run of Winslow to score. Duke found another gear, as Jake Hyde singled through the right side to score a pair, Rounds drew a bases-loaded walk, and Sam Harris singled up the middle to score two more. Jake Berger put the icing on a 10-run frame, doubling down the line in right, 15-6.Â
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Clemson scratched across three runs in the bottom of the seventh on two Duke errors, before Reid Easterly ended the frame. Graduate lefty Gavin Brown worked the final two frames of the contest, allowing one run on two hits and punching out three batters.Â
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Duke opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, as AJ Gracia hit a solo home run to right field, 1-0.
- Clemson took the lead in the bottom of the first inning, 6-1.
- The Blue Devils cut into the lead in the top of the second inning, as Macon Winslow hit a solo home run to left field, 6-2.
- In the top of the third inning, Gracia hit a solo home run to right field. Ben Rounds singled through the right side to score Tyler Albright from second, 6-4.
- Duke cut into the lead in the top of the fifth inning, as Rounds hit a solo home run to center field, 6-5.
- In the top of the seventh inning, Wallace Clark reached on an error to score Winslow from second. Hyde singled through the right side to score a pair. Rounds drew a bases-loaded walk to score Ben Miller. Sam Harris singled up the middle to score a pair. Jake Berger doubled down the line in right to score a pair, 15-6.
- Clemson scratches across a trio of runs in the bottom of the seventh, 15-9.
- The Tigers add a run in the bottom of the ninth, 15-10.
NOTESÂ
- Duke improved to 219-72 (.753) when scoring first and 243-53 (.821) when scoring three-plus runs in an inning since 2016.
- Sophomore AJ Gracia extended his hitting streak to 10 games, hitting a home run in the first inning for the third consecutive contest. Gracia collected the first multi-home run game of the season since Ben Rounds and finished the day 2-for-5 with two solo home runs and a walk.
- Junior right-hander Gabe Nard put on a stellar performance on the mound for Duke, as he tossed three innings and struck out a career-high seven batters. Nard also silenced the Clemson bats, holding the Tigers hitless during his time on the mound.
- Graduate Jake Hyde extended his hitting streak to 16 games on Saturday, singling through the right side to give Duke the lead in the top of the seventh inning. Hyde finished the day 1-for-3 with three walks and two RBI.
- Duke batted around for the 16th time this season, scoring 10 runs on the Tigers in the seventh. It marked the first 10-run innings since May 5, 2024, against Longwood at Jack Coombs Field.
- The Blue Devils improved to 54-1 since 2023 when scoring 10-plus runs in a game, while improving to 18-0 in 2025.Â
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QUOTESÂ
- "I have been a part of a lot of great wins at Duke, and this will go up there amongst them. We fall behind 6-1 and have first and second nobody out in the bottom of the second inning and it looked like it may be slipping away from us. It was just an incredibly competitive fight by our team. Gabe Nard deserves a ton of credit for coming in and stabilizing the ballgame. It is no doubt one of his best outings during his Duke career. Then we just chipped away and were able to break through there in the seventh. It wasn't perfect by any stretch, and it was a hard day to play with the conditions, but we were really tough." – Head coach Chris Pollard on his thoughts about erasing an early deficit to level the series on Saturday.
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UP NEXT
- Duke and No. 9 Clemson conclude the three-game set from Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
For more information on Duke Baseball, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "DukeBASE".
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#GoDuke
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Easterly, Reid (8-1)
L: Jacob McGovern (3-1)
Batting:
2B: Clark, Wallace 1 ; Berger, Jake 2
HR: Gracia, AJ 2 ; Rounds, Ben 1 ; Winslow, Macon 1
RBI: Clark, Wallace 2 ; Gracia, AJ 2 ; Hyde, Jake 2 ; Rounds, Ben 3 ; Harris, Sam 2 ; Winslow, Macon 1 ; Berger, Jake 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Clark, Wallace 1 ; Gracia, AJ 2 ; Miller, Ben 1 ; Hyde, Jake 1 ; Albright, Tyler 2 ; Rounds, Ben 2 ; Harris, Sam 1 ; Winslow, Macon 3 ; Berger, Jake 2
SB: Hyde, Jake 1 ; Albright, Tyler 1
HBP: Miller, Ben 1 ; Winslow, Macon 2
Batting:
2B: Luke Gaffney 1
HR: Josh Paino 1
RBI: Cam Cannarella 1 ; Jack Crighton 1 ; Josh Paino 3 ; Jarren Purify 1 ; Luke Gaffney 1 ; Andrew Ciufo 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cam Cannarella 2 ; Jack Crighton 1 ; Josh Paino 1 ; Dominic Listi 1 ; Jacob Jarrell 2 ; Jarren Purify 1 ; Luke Gaffney 2
SB: Dominic Listi 1 ; Jarren Purify 1
CS: Dominic Listi 1
HBP: Josh Paino 1 ; Andrew Ciufo 1
PO: Dominic Listi 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
2
H
3
RBI
2
AB
6
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
AB
5
R
2
H
2
RBI
3
Players Mentioned
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LHP
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