Duke Upsets Virginia, Advances to ACC Semifinal

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LOUISVILLE, KY – It is never mentioned that a Duke team is on the winning side of an upset in the postseason, let alone twice in the same week. In ACC Tournament Pool D play, No. 9 seed Duke beat No. 4 seed Virginia 4-3 on Thursday afternoon, just two days after defeating No. 5 seed Clemson 6-3.

Duke’s damage-inning was the sixth; it put up three runs to take a 4-2 lead. Max Miller knocked in a run on a single, and then Chris Proctor scored two on a single to left after a throwing error by shortstop Ernie Clement loaded the bases.

“I knew I wanted to get my pitch since it was based loaded, two outs,” Proctor said. “I knew I had to get a hit, and he missed and went behind I think 3-0 and so I was going to see a strike…so I knew if I got a hit we were definitely going to get two.”

Blue Devil starter Ryan Day kept his team in the game, giving up three runs in 6.2 IP. Jack Labosky closed out the game in the ninth and left a runner stranded on third base.

“You know, I just kind of did the same thing we’ve been doing all year,” Day said. “I went into it trusting the process, trusting what the coaches and I have been doing all year.”

The Cavaliers took a 2-1 in the top of the fourth inning when Pavin Smith scored from third on Cameron Simmons’s ground out. Before that, Virginia tied the game at 1-1 when Robbie Coman doubled in Adam Haseley prior to Simmons’s AB.

Duke jumped off to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Kennie Taylor drove in Griffin Conine on an infield single. Conine drew a two-out walk, and then Jack Labosky doubled to left. With runners on second and third, Taylor hit the infield single, Conine scored, but Labosky was easily thrown out at the plate when he tried to score from second.

After the first inning, Virginia starter Derek Casey got into a groove. He struck out three and at one point retired eight batters in a row before he was pulled from the game after one out in the sixth inning and Duke scored the three runs to take the lead.

“I’m really proud of our club,” Duke head coach Chris Proctor said. “I thought for the second ballgame in this tournament, we pitched very well. We commanded the strike zone, played really good defense behind our pitchers, and we did a good job of staying in the moment and making plays late in the ballgame.”

Duke is done with pool play; it went 2-0 and clinched a spot in Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal against the Pool A winner. Virginia (0-1) plays Clemson (0-1) Friday at noon at University of Louisville’s Jim Patterson Stadium, but the game is meaningless as far as advancing in the ACC Tournament.