WINSTON-SALEM – What was lined up to be a pitcher’s duel turned out to be an early innings slugfest.

Wake Forest came up a few big hits short, losing 8-5 to Duke in the ACC opener on Friday night at David F. Couch Ballpark.

Both teams sent their aces, junior left-handers Josh Hartle for the Deacons and Jonathan Santucci for the Blue Devils, to the mound.

Hartle (3-1) was knocked out of the game in the fourth inning, having given up six runs on 11 hits. Santucci didn’t even make it that far, exiting in the third and giving up five runs on six hits and three walks.

Both teams scored two runs in the first inning. Duke (12-1) got three doubles, from Ben Miller, Logan Bravo and AJ Gracia. Wake Forest (11-2) got an RBI double by Seaver King and an RBI single by Jake Reinisch.

After Duke took a 4-2 lead in the third, Wake Forest took its first and only lead with King’s three-run homer in the bottom of the inning. The Deacons’ cleanup hitter was 3-for-5 in the game.

The Blue Devils’ answer came when Hartle issued a two-out walk, an at-bat in which he thought he’d registered a called strike-3. He didn’t, and Gracia followed with a two-run homer that gave Duke a lead it never relinquished. Gracia and Miller added solo homers in the later innings for insurance runs.

Wake Forest loaded the bases in the seventh but couldn’t score.

Duke closer Charlie Beilenson entered in the seventh after Gabriel Nard walked Nick Kurtz to lead off the inning. Beilenson gave up a single and walk to the next two batters to load the bases, and then navigated the trouble by fielding a comebacker, getting a strikeout and getting a pinch-hitter to pop up.

The game was delayed one hour, to a 7 p.m. first pitch, because of rain. It was still sprinkling when the game started, but that dissipated sometime in the first inning.