Leave no doubt. That is what Duke baseball did after two extra-innings contests left a home series with Virginia Tech knotted at one game apiece. In a Sunday rubber match, the Blue Devils clicked on all cylinders. A 14-0 win was driven by two grand slams from Sam Harris and AJ Gracia, while an efficient start from freshman Henry Zatkowski on the bump helped the Blue Devils reach 30 wins for the 12th time under head coach Chris Pollard. “I thought it was a great response by our club … You’re a little bit depleted so you know you gotta have some guys step up, and I thought it was just a great step-up performance by Henry Zatkowski. And then our offense really got going,” Pollard said. Exiting the rain delay Saturday, Duke (30-15, 14-10 in ACC) had the bases loaded in the third inning with a 7-0 lead and one of its best sluggers in Ben Miller at the dish. The Durham native squandered his chance to extend the lead with two outs, and the visitors eventually clawed all the way back to a victory. A similar situation presented itself Sunday: two outs, bottom of the third, bases loaded and dangerous Sam Harris up to bat. After falling behind 0-2, the sophomore fought off a few tough pitches to bide himself some time. Then, he finally caught hold of an offering from Preston Crowl, giving the 2-2 over the right-field wall for a grand slam that avenged the miscue from the day prior and made the lead six. “What a job by Sam Harris. I can’t say enough about how Sam has grown as a player over his time in our program. It's really fun to watch,” Pollard said. Miller did plenty by himself to make up for the aforementioned out, as he racked up three RBIs in the first four innings behind a sacrifice fly, his 18th home run of the season and a double in the right-center gap. The last of the trio made the game 7-0 and chased one of Virginia Tech’s best arms, Crowl, out of the game. After a grand slam from AJ Gracia — who seems to be regaining his freshman form — Duke was rolling with a 11-0 lead. Three more runs courtesy of singles from Clark and Gracia put the exclamation point on the blowout victory. It seemed as if the fatigue from back-to-back extra-innings thriller had worn on the Blacksburg, Va., team. The Blue Devils were able to manufacture offense early, but they received ample help from the visitors. The Hokies (27-17, 11-13) failed to communicate on defense and allowed the ball to hit the turf for a double after Wallace Clark led off the contest with what seemed to be a shallow pop fly to right field. It set the stage for two consecutive deep flies that brought the shortstop home. A second-inning error by the second baseman followed by an errant throw on a steal attempt only reinforced this theory. Virginia Tech’s fielding eventually returned to form, and it became the Blue Devils who struggled in that department. The top of the fifth inning saw two poor plays from Clark and Noah Murray on ground balls, allowing the Hokies to load the bases and forcing Zatkowski to exit the game. Mark Hindy inherited the jam, but emphatically struck out Henry Cooke on three pitches to end the inning. Clark made a throwing error in the top of the sixth, but Hindy was able to work around it yet again. He spun three strikeouts on the day as he and Reid Easterly handled the rest of the game. Zatkowski took the mound for the Blue Devils Sunday as they looked to clinch the series. The Clarksville, Md., native was sharp through 4.2 innings and 87 pitches. Outside of a handful of well-hit balls that fell just foul of being home runs — one was so close it prompted video review — Zatkowski limited hard contact as he allowed just two hits. He also showed excellent command of his offspeed, highlighted by a front-door slider that froze David McCann to end the fourth frame. “He was below the barrel today, and got a lot of ground-ball contact. We would have been happy with four [innings], they were starting to figure him out right there in the fifth. He kept pounding the strike zone, and I’m really proud of his maturity,” Pollard said. The second game of the series was a tale of two halves. After jumping out to a six-run lead in the bottom of the first, the game was delayed for an hour and 22 minutes due to lightning in the area. AJ Gracia drew a walk to bring in another tally after the break, but the stoppage seemed to shift the tides. Virginia Tech parlayed a five-run fifth into a three-run sixth frame to take an 8-7 lead, putting Duke into a surprise hole after the hot start. The Blue Devils tied it on a Ben Miller single, but simply ran out of gas in the eleventh as the visitors tied the series. The weekend victory was a big one, keeping the Blue Devils in the conversation for a high seed at the upcoming ACC Tournament. Duke will take a slight break from the diamond this week for academic finals, then host Radford in a doubleheader Sunday before resuming conference play.
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