It had been nearly two months since the red-hot UNC baseball team–now ranked No. 4 in the country–had lost an ACC series, but the No. 13 Duke Blue Devils changed that on Saturday with a 5-2 victory over the Tar Heels at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The loss is the third in a row for UNC (33-16, 18-8 ACC), which came up short against the Blue Devils (38-11, 17-8 ACC) on Friday and Coastal Carolina on Wednesday after having previously won nine straight.

Duke opened scoring on Saturday with an RBI double from Zack Kone in the bottom of the first inning, but the Tar Heels quickly responded with an run-scoring blooper from Cody Roberts in the top of the second.

Everything changed in the home half of the third frame, when the Blue Devils got an RBI single from Griffin Conine and another that brought home two more runs from Kennie Taylor–giving Duke a commanding 4-1 lead against UNC starter Austin Bergner.

A wild pitch by the Tar Heels in the sixth inning allowed the Blue Devils to make the score 5-1 later on in the game.

UNC’s only other offense came by way of an RBI single from Brandon Riley in the top of the ninth, which ultimately ended up having no impact on the final outcome.

Zack Gahagan did end up bringing the tying run to the plate for the Tar Heels, but Duke was able to close out the victory without much trouble.

Up Next:

The Tar Heels will try to avoid the sweep in Sunday’s series finale, a game set to begin at 1:00 p.m.

 

 

FINAL BOX SCORE

 

 

 

Photo via Joe Bray (UNC Athletics)

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