Baseball Drops Weekend Series to Duke

April 12, 1998

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke Blue Devils won the weekend series with No. 3 Clemson two games to one winning 6-2 this afternoon at Jack Coombs Field.

The Blue Devils got an outstanding outing from junior Stephen Cowie who improved to 9-1 on the year with the complete game win. Cowie scattered 10 hits over 9.0 innings allowing only two runs. He struck out nine and walked only one on the afternoon.

Duke began the game with four straight singles scoring two runs in the first to take the early lead. A walk, four concecutive singles and a double allowed the Blue Devils to score three in the fifth. they added one more in the sixth when Adam Geis scored on the wild pitch.

Cowie was sharp throughout, retiring the side in order in the second, fifth, eight and ninth. He didn’t face more than five batters in an inning except the seventh when the Tigers sent six men to the plate and scored two runs.

Brian Ellis reached on a fielders choice while Casey Stone singled in the seventh. Both scored on a Patrick Boyd double.

The Blue Devils were led offensively by senior Michael Fletcher who went 2-for-4 on the afternoon with a run scored and three RBI. Ed Conrey went 2-for-3 driving in his team-high 51st run of the year. Gregg Maluchnik finished 2-for-4 with an RBI as well.

Jeff Becker and Vaughn Schill each scored two runs on the afternoon. Becker finished 2-for-4 while Schill was 1-for-4.

Patrick Boyd went 2-for-3 on the afternoon with two RBI while Skip Browning took the loss for Clemson. He falls to 5-2 on the year.

The win improves the Blue Devils to 31-11 overall and 5-9 in the ACC. Clemson falls to 34-7 overall and 8-4 in league play.