Duke blasts its way past Texas A&M in NCAA tournament
It was a pitchers’ duel…until it wasn’t.
A pair of three-run homers led Duke over Texas A&M, 8-5, in the first game of the NCAA Morgantown Regional.
“I’m incredibly proud of our club,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said. “I thought that we had a tremendous offensive approach against one of the best arms in the country.”
The Blue Devils (32-25) couldn’t really get anything going, sending the minimum number of batters to the plate in two of the first three innings, only getting one hit.
Their fortunes changed in the fourth inning, when Michael Rothenberg and Kyle Gallagher singled with no out. Erikson Nichols hit a long drive home run to left field to clear the bases and give Duke a 3-0 lead.
Nichols knew he would have an opportunity to knock one out of a park against Texas A&M starter John Doxakis.
“He was in the zone the first inning, throwing strikes,” Nichols said. “In my first at-bat, he was all fastball, didn’t throw me a slider, and this is a guy who is notorious for throwing sliders. Coming up that second time…he hadn’t shown me the slider yet, so I knew it was going to show up at some point in the at-bat.
“He threw a slider, and that’s what I was looking for.”
Chris Crabtree followed up the home run with a double up the middle and advanced to third on a wild pitch. He beat the throw home on RJ Schreck’s grounder to second base and the Blue Devils led 4-0.
Texas A&M (37-22-1) made up a run on a Braden Shewmake sacrifice fly to left field an inning later.
Duke put it out of reach in the eighth inning when Rothenberg scored on a wild pitch and Rudy Maxwell’s three-run homer to left put the Blue Devils in front 8-1.
The Aggies rallied in the ninth with singles by Zach DeLoach and Ty Coleman and two runs scored off of wild pitches by Blue Devils reliever Thomas Girard.
Matt Dockman replaced Girard on the mound and finished off the last two batters to take Duke to the second game of the NCAA Regional.
“(Dockman) has earned a reputation in our program and on our team for coming in and cleaning up the mess,” Pollard said.
Ben Gross had a stellar start for Duke, allowing only one run off of four hits while striking out five in seven innings, picking up his seventh win of the season.
The Blue Devils will play the winner of the West Virginia-Fordham game. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday.
This story was originally published May 31, 2019 at 7:24 PM.