Georgia Tech pulls away from Duke for series win

DURHAM – There was disappointment for Duke’s baseball team after an 8-2 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday at Jack Coombs Field.

There was also an eagerness to move forward roughly 10 minutes after the game ended from Blue Devils coach Chris Pollard.

“I just told them, ‘Look, I understand there’s some disappointment about today,’” Pollard said of the post-game talk with his team. “‘But you put yourself in a position going into next week where you’ve 100% secured your spot in the NCAA tournament, so the focus next week can just be playing for an ACC championship knowing that you don’t have to go in there knowing you don’t have to pad your résumé. Because your résumé is already good enough.’”

Duke (36-18, 17-13 ACC) had some missed opportunities and the score was tighter for most of the game than where it ended.

After Georgia Tech (39-16, 19-11) broke a tie with Carson Kerce’s two-run double in the top of the fourth inning, Tyler Albright led off the bottom half of the inning to make it a 3-2 game.

But that was end of Duke’s scoring. Brady Jones pitched five innings and allowed Duke’s two runs; Jaylen Paden pitched the final four innings for the Yellow Jackets, allowing two hits and four walks.

The Blue Devils put the leadoff batter on base in the sixth, seventh and eighth against Paden; in the first two of those, double plays erased threats of a big inning. In the eighth, when it was a 6-2 game, Duke got a second runner on base with one out before a strikeout and lineout ended the inning.

This came after Duke pounded out 14 runs in a mercy-rule win on Saturday.

“We gave ourselves a lot of chances. I thought we were disciplined in the zone, I thought we hit some balls really hard against Paden and just didn’t have a lot to show for it,” Pollard said. “I thought we took some good swings but … it wasn’t like we had a bad offensive approach today. We just didn’t have a ton to show for it.”

The Blue Devils loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, which would’ve been more dramatic if not for a two-run homer in the top of the inning. An infield fly and groundout prevented Duke from narrowing the score.

Duke had six hits, two of them for extra bases — that solo homer by Albright and a one-out double by AJ Gracia in the fifth. Duke also had six walks and three times were hit by pitches; the Blue Devils stranded 11 runners.

Henry Zatkowski (5-2) allowed three runs (two earned) in four innings as Duke’s starter. Gabe Nard relieved him and was charged with two runs in his 1 1/3 innings. James Tallon gave up the Yellow Jackets’ other three runs (two earned) across 2 1/3 innings; Ryan Higgins finished the game on the mound by recording a scoreless ninth after Tallon allowed Alex Hernandez’s two-run homer.