Can Duke baseball bounce back after dominant win by Virginia in super regional?

Virginia baseball evened its Charlottesville Super Regional series with Duke on Saturday, blasting four home runs on 14 hits in a 14-4 victory at Disharoon Park. Game 3 is scheduled for Sunday at noon with the winner advancing to the College World Series.

The No. 7 Cavs (49-13) never trailed as Griff O'Ferrall sent one over the wall on the game's first at-bat.

Later, in a four-run fifth inning, Ethan Anderson and Anthony Stephan blasted back-to-back homers to right. Anderson's shot came with two on and one out. It was his 13th dinger of the season and it sailed all the way over the party deck past the right-field wall and hit the roof of the outfield concourse to plate three runs.

Jake Gelof's 442-foot smash over the left-field bleachers in the eighth inning iced it. The hit set a single-season home run record for the Cavs (23) and made Gelof the program's all-time RBI leader with 184.

The Cavs also added to their national lead in doubles with one each from Ethan O'Donnell and Gelof upping the team total to 165. Gelof's two-bagger plated two runs as it bounced off the wall in center.

Duke (39-23) got within a run after scoring three in the fourth inning to trail 4-3. Luke Storm found the gap in left-center with a deep drive for a two-run double and the next batter, Damon Lux, followed suit with a double of his own to score Storm.

Virginia responded with six runs over the next two innings while Early kept Duke scoreless through the seventh. Storm singled and scored on a hit from Lux in the eighth inning off reliever Jack O'Connor.

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Virginia pitcher Connelly Early dominates

He spent two seasons as a cadet pitching at West Point for the Army baseball team, but now Virginia-born Early is a Cavaliers ace.

The junior and former Patriot League Pitcher of the Year kept Duke batters handcuffed as Virginia held a 4-0 lead after 3.5 innings, giving up only three hits in that span.

His fastball and breaking ball were on, and after Duke found its offense with three runs on three hits in the fourth, Early settled down to toss a scoreless fifth.

He finished with eight strikeouts, nine hits and three runs (none earned) in seven innings pitched.

Duke's shortstop injured

Duke shortstop Alex Mooney was injured in Saturday's game when a pitch from Early hit the back of his knee.

Mooney, who has more hits (68), steals (21) and HBPs (19) than anyone else on the team, stayed in the game after limping to first base. He was thrown out at second and went into the clubhouse after leaving the field, clearly in pain.

Coach Chris Pollard left his sophomore in the game, despite the compromise to his mobility, and the knee wasn't tested in the top half of the fourth.

Mooney played through the pain and his defense did not suffer as a result of the injury.

Division III Blue Devils

Duke is getting huge contributions from some former Division III baseball players on its roster this season.

MJ Metz, who hit three homers in the Conway Regional opener against UNC Wilmington — while playing on a torn ACL — came to Duke as a graduate transfer from Division III Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Hitting from the No. 5 spot as a DH, Metz is tied for the team lead in home runs with Alex Stone at 17.

Saturday's starter Alex Gow is a former North Coast Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year out of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke baseball falls to Virginia in Charlottesville Super Regional 2