The 2024 Duke baseball season came to a close on Sunday evening in Norman.
The Blue Devils dropped an elimination game against the hosting Oklahoma Sooners, 4-3. The loss, Duke’s second of the Norman Regional, dropped the team from the bracket.
After a red-hot ACC Tournament run, the Connecticut Huskies threw cold water on Duke’s momentum with a 4-1 win to open postseason play. However, another firm Huskies win over the Sooners and Duke’s 6-2 victory over Oral Roberts kept the Blue Devils alive and offered promise for the elimination battle against the hosting team.
The hopes seemed validated when Zac Morris led the game off with a double. He scored two batters later when freshman AJ Gracia poked a single through to right field (beating a shift in the process). All of a sudden, with just one out on the board, the Blue Devils already led by a run. The offense that racked up 43 runs across four games in Charlotte seemed back.
Shift beat. Run scored.
One nothing, Duke 😈 https://t.co/r04RO2zHS7 pic.twitter.com/aeihMEZtzX
— Duke Baseball (@DukeBASE) June 2, 2024
The excitement petered quickly, however. The Sooners recorded two more outs swiftly with a double play and held Duke scoreless for the next six innings.
The Blue Devils just failed to convert over and over again. Morris reached scoring position again with two outs in the third inning. Chase Krewson grounded into a double play to end the fourth. The Blue Devils put runners on first and second with one out in the fifth.
The Sooners, in the meantime, broke Duke starter Fran Oschell III open in the second inning. After two walks in the first three at-bats of the inning, Rocco Garza-Gongora and Jason Walk tagged back-to-back base hits to bring around three runs. Walk’s triple cleared two men off the bases, turning a tie game into a 3-1 lead.
Gracia tried to play hero for the entire game, and he wore the cape admirably. First, he made a highlight-reel play in right field with a home run robbery.
Big time players make big time plays 🤷♂️😈👀
cc: @NCAABaseball @ACCBaseball #SCTop10 https://t.co/Wt9jjfNXt0 pic.twitter.com/P7GJEhlAaL
— Duke Baseball (@DukeBASE) June 2, 2024
Then, after another OU run made the lead 4-1, the freshman hammered a two-run homer to bring the Blue Devils within a run. He sent the ball to the deepest part of the park, too, clearing the 410-foot wall in straight centerfield.
AJ two-run shot. One-run game.
T8 | Oklahoma 4, Duke 3 | #BlueCollar pic.twitter.com/wDtHwMj1CD
— Duke Baseball (@DukeBASE) June 2, 2024
Despite Gracia’s best efforts, however, one man can’t beat a team all by himself. With Duke needing a run to stay alive in the top of the ninth, the Sooners retired all three batters to advance to the Regional Final against UConn.
Duke finishes the 2024 season with a 40-20 record and an ACC Tournament title.