Duke baseball beats Coastal Carolina, advances to NCAA Tournament super regional
CONWAY, S.C. – Duke baseball is two wins away from the College World Series.
The Blue Devils left little doubt in the NCAA Tournament’s Conway Regional with a dominant 12-3 win against host Coastal Carolina to advance to the super regional round.
Duke (38-22) will play at Virginia (48-12), the No. 7 national seed, in a best-of-three series this weekend in Charlottesville. The Blue Devils are in the super regional round for the first time since back-to-back appearances in 2018-19.
Duke leaned on its stellar pitching and steady offense to eliminate the Chanticleers (42-21), who earned an 8-6 win on Sunday to force a decisive Game 7 in the regional.
The Blue Devils carried a 4.03 ERA into Monday’s finale against a Coastal Carolina offense that averaged 9.3 runs per game as the fourth-best scoring team in the nation. The Chanticleers scored double-digit runs in three of their first four regional games before their worst showing of the tourney.
Quality pitching from Alex Gow, Duke bullpen
Duke coach Chris Pollard gave the ball to graduate transfer Alex Gow in the winner-take-all game and Gow delivered a quality start.
In its first four games of the Conway Regional, Coastal Carolina scored 14 runs in the first two innings. Gow put up four zeroes on Monday with seven strikeouts. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning.
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It was the right-hander’s best start since pitching five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts against Virginia Tech on April 9. Fellow graduate transfer Charlie Beilenson provided relief with his single-season record 37th appearance of the season.
Beilenson had three strikeouts and didn’t allow a hit in two innings. After a double and a walk in the fourth, Duke’s pitchers retired 15 batters in a row before Coastal recorded its four hits and scored in the ninth inning.
Duke leans on long ball, MJ Metz … again
The Blue Devils had 12 home runs in four games at the Conway Regional, including three against Coastal on Monday.
After hitting two home runs against the Chanticleers on Sunday, junior catcher Alex Stone hit his third dinger Monday with a two-out, three-run shot to give Duke a 4-0 lead.
MJ Metz, who hit three home runs against UNCW, added another against Coastal despite playing with a torn ACL in his left knee. Gio DiGiacomo joined the long-ball party in the fifth with a solo shot that landed in Coastal’s bullpen.
Duke scored in five straight innings to blow the game open.
Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke baseball advances to NCAA Tournament super regional vs. Virginia
