Duke stuns Virginia in ACC tourney

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Posted 5:34AM on Thursday, May 27, 2004

SALEM, VIRGINIA - Duke roughed up ACC player of the year Joe Koshansky and Tim Layden shut Virginia down Wednesday night, giving the Blue Devils a surprising 6-5 victory in the first round of the ACC tournament. The second-seeded Cavaliers (42-12), in the midst of their best season ever, got burned by a big inning and will have to win out from the losers' bracket to make the most of the last tournament in their home state. ``If you can give up single runs in innings and stay away from the big inning, you have a chance to win,'' said first-year Virginia coach Brian O'Conner, the ACC coach of the year. ``They had two big innings.'' With the help of two errors, the Blue Devils Scores four times against Koshansky in the third innings, then twice more in the fourth, after a rain delay of 2 hours, 43 minutes caused both coaches to change pitchers. Layden (6-5), who beat Clemson in an elimination game here last year, took good memories to the mound and only added to them with six solid innings. He allowed five hits, two runs and struck out seven. ``Every time you come back to a park where you pitched well, you always feel a little bit more comfortable,'' Layden said. Layden, who started at first base, had lots of support in depriving the Cardiac Cavaliers of their 18th comeback victory. 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 fourth for the Blue Devils. Duke had 16 hits. Duke (25-29) moved on to a winner's bracket game against either Florida State or North Carolina State, who played the late game. The Blue Devils did all their scoring against Koshansky in the third as Virginia made two errors on pickoff plays, and almost had three. Anderson led off with a single and first baseman Tom Hagan mishandled a pickoff throw from Koshansky, allowing Anderson to take second. Socorro also singled, but Koshanksy picked him off with Anderson holding third. 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 moved to third when Koshansky threw into center trying to pick him off second, and after a flyout by Layden, Brian Hernandez singled in a run. Smith then hit only his second home run of the season to make it 4-2. Koshansky had blown two outside fastballs past Smith. ``It was 0-2 on the guy and I left a cutter up in the zone,'' Koshansky (7-3) said. ``It didn't really move much and he was able to hit it out.'' Smith said his eyes lit up when he saw the mistake coming toward him. ``I was just trying to put it in play and slap it to right field and he hung a changeup and I just put the best swing I could on it,'' he said. 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 of the year, in the eighth.