May 26, 2004

2004 ACC Baseball Championship Central | Gametracker

SALEM, Va. (AP) - Duke roughed up ACC player of the year Joe Koshansky for four runs and stunned second-seeded Virginia 6-5 Wednesday night in a rain-delayed first round game of the ACC tournament.

The Blue Devils (25-29) scored four times in the third inning against Koshansky (7-3), then twice more in the fourth following a rain delay of two hours, 43 minutes that caused both teams to change pitchers.

Javier Socorro had four hits and drove in a run, John Berger had three hits and scored once, Jonathan Anderson had two hits and scored twice and Bryan Smith hit a two-run homer in the big fourth for the Blue Devils.

Duke had 16 hits.

Tim Layden (6-5), who moved from first base to pitcher after the delay, allowed two runs and five hits in six innings. He struck out seven, depriving the Cardiac Cavaliers (42-12) of their 18th comeback victory.

Duke moved on to a winner's bracket game against either Florida State or North Carolina State, who played the late game. Virginia, in the midst of its best season, will have to beat the loser to avoid elimination.

The Blue Devils did all their scoring against Koshansky in the third as Virginia made two errors on pickoff plays, and could have had three.

Anderson led off with a single and Socorro also singled. After first baseman Tom Hagan mishandled a pickoff throw from Koshansky, allowing Anderson to take second, Koshanksy picked Socorro off first.

Adam Murray followed with an RBI single before he, too, was picked off first, but was credited with a stolen base when he beat Hagan's throw. Murray move to third when Koshansky threw into centerfield trying to pick him off second, and after a flyout by Layden, Brian Hernandez singled in a run and Smith hit only his second home run of the season to make it 4-2.

Virginia scored once in each of the first three innings against Duke's Greg Burke. Matt Dunn had an RBI single in the first, Tim Henry had one in the second and Koshansky hit a run-scoring grounder in the third.

Virginia pulled to 6-5 on Tim Henry's RBI single in the sixth and Hagan's opposite field home run, his first, in the eighth.