Duke baseball opens NCAA baseball regional play by pounding Oklahoma State

The Duke Blue Devils swatted three home runs during a third-inning uprising that propelled them to a 12-5 win over Oklahoma State at NCAA tournament’s Athens Regional on Friday night.

Duke (38-19) advances to face the regional’s top seed and host, Georgia, at 6 p.m. on Friday at Foley Field in Athens.

Ben Miller’s solo home run, followed by two-run blasts from Tyler Albright and Jake Berger, highlighted Duke’s six-run third inning that staked it to a 9-0 lead.

The Blue Devils pounded out 12 hits in the lopsided win, with lead-off man Wallace Clark and designated hitter Sam Harris each collecting three hits. Jake Hyde had three RBIs for Duke while Albright, Harris and Berger each had two.

That was more than enough support for junior Owen Proksch, the Duke left-hander who tossed six innings of three-hit baseball in his first career NCAA tournament start. Proksch struck out eight batters.