DURHAM, N.C. — No. 17-ranked Duke (4-3) continued its offensive momentum from Saturday, scoring the first 13 runs in its 18-1 victory over the Cornell baseball team (1-2) to secure the three-game series victory at Jack Coombs Field on Sunday afternoon.
 
Kyle Johnson excelled off the bench for Duke, going 2-for-2 with a home run and six RBI. Ben Rounds, Adam Troch, and Andrew Yu were the other Blue Devils players to drive in multiple runs. Tyler Albright joined Johnson and Yu in having multi-hit games.
 
Gabe Nard earned the victory for the Blue Devils after tossing two innings of shutout relief of starter James Tallon, who allowed three runs and struck out two over the first three innings.
 
Junior right fielder Caden Wildman notched the lone RBI of the day for Cornell with an eighth-inning RBI single.
 
Making his first start since his freshman year in 2022, senior right-hander Chris Ellison ended as the losing pitcher for the Big Red. Ellison yielded four runs on three hits across 4.1 innings pitched. He issued five walks and struck out a pair of Duke batters.
 
In what started as a pitcher's duel, senior left fielder John Quinlan (leadoff double) and senior designated hitter Kyle Musser (hit by pitch) both reached base safely before Tallon stopped the Big Red from scoring first by striking out senior first baseman Max Jensen and inducing an inning-ending double play.
 
Like Cornell's start, Duke's first two batters reached base safely before sophomore third baseman Luke Johnson initiated a double play by catching a line drive hit by Duke third baseman Ben Miller, ultimately leading to a groundout that ended the inning.
 

 
In the second, Ellison induced an inning-ending double play for his second twin-killing in as many innings.
 

 
After two more scoreless innings, Duke scored in the fifth inning with a nine-run rally fueled by seven hits, all singles.
 
The scoring started with a squeeze play executed by Yu with one out and runners on the corners. Rounds extended Duke's lead to 3-0 with a two-run single, followed by an RBI fielder's choice by Ben Miller and an RBI single by AJ Gracia that increased Duke's advantage to 5-0. Albright drove in another run with a single before a two-run pinch-hit single from Johnson finished off the scoring for the Blue Devils in the inning.
 
Johnson extended Duke's lead in the seventh with a grand slam to left-center field after the Blue Devils drew three walks.
 
Wildman dashed Duke's hopes for a shutout, hitting a one-out RBI single to bring senior first baseman Max Jensen home in the eighth inning.
 
Duke scored five runs in the eighth inning to extend its lead, highlighted by a two-run pinch-hit triple from Troch and a pinch-hit RBI triple from Jay Slater, both of which marked the first collegiate hits for each player.
 
Freshman Mason Barela began the ninth inning with a pinch-hit single, marking his first collegiate hit.
 

 
GAME NOTES
• Sunday was the 22nd all-time meeting between Cornell and Duke as the Blue Devils upped its lead in the series to 15-6-1 and has won 12 of the last 13 meetings.
 
• Duke's 18 runs tied the record for the most runs scored against Cornell in the series history, matching the Blue Devils' 18-15 victory on March 30, 1948, also held at Jack Coombs Field.
 
• Cornell did not make any errors during the weekend series against Duke, having played flawless baseball over its last 37 innings, dating back to the first game of last year's Ivy League Tournament championship round (May 20, 2024). This marks the first time the Big Red has gone four games without an error since May 3-8, 2022.
 
• Since 1891, it is the first time on record in program history that Cornell has opened a season without an error in any of its first three games.
 
• With his seventh-inning infield single, senior center fielder Jakobi Davis extended his hit streak to a career-long seven games.
 
• Despite having his 20-game hit streak snapped on Sunday, Jensen increased his on-base streak to 21 games after drawing an eighth-inning walk.
 
• Freshman catcher Ryan Dillon made his collegiate debut on Sunday, striking out in his lone plate appearance in the ninth inning.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell will continue its season-opening 15-game road trip next weekend when it travels to Baltimore, Md., for a three-game series against UMBC (0-3).
 
The series will commence from Varsity Field with a doubleheader on Saturday, March 1, slated to begin at noon. All three games will be streamed live on AmericaEast.tv.
 
UMBC is coming off a pair of run-rule losses to Stetson, 11-1, and Notre Dame, 12-2, in DeLand, Fla. The weekend concluded for the Retrievers with a 6-0 defeat to Iowa.