Coming off two close losses Saturday and Sunday, the Blue Devils have the chance to bounce back right away with a busy week that will test their depth.
Duke has two mid-week games for the first time this season before its weekend series against Toledo, taking on Davidson at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park Tuesday at 4 p.m. The team will be right back at it the next day, traveling to Buies Creek, N.C., to face Campbell Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Jim Perry Stadium. The extra game will force the Blue Devils to go further into a heavily-used bullpen that trotted out six different relievers in the past two games.
“I’m energized by the fact that this is going to provide some opportunities for some guys that haven’t gotten in the mix yet,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said Monday on his weekly radio show. “We’ve got four guys right now down in our bullpen, in [Zach] Kesterson and [Al] Pesto and [Chris] McGrath and [Hunter] Davis, that are big, physical, plus-velocity guys…. They’re gifted guys and they’ve been patiently waiting their turn.”
Duke (4-3) opened its weekend in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with a convincing 8-1 win against Ohio State, but fell to Liberty 1-0 Saturday after squandering a plethora of opportunities with runners in scoring position. The Blue Devils’ bats came alive Sunday but could not keep up with No. 17 Coastal Carolina's offense in a back-and-forth 10-6 contest.
“You’re a couple swings of the bat, a couple pitches away from leaving there 3-0. It doesn’t feel great—there are no moral victories, but at the same, we know we’re doing some things well,” Pollard said. “If you do those things consistently over the long haul, you’ll come out on top a lot.”
The Blue Devils will try to start a new winning streak this week, but must get past two dangerous, experienced opponents to do so.
The Wildcats (4-3) have a strong lineup that exploded for 12 runs in a win against Georgetown Sunday, with four players collecting multiple hits. Junior catcher Jake Sidwell is off to a red-hot start to the season—going 10-for-22 in seven games—and seniors Lee Miller and Sam Foy return after both batted higher than .300 in 2015.
“You’ve got a guy in the middle of their lineup in Lee Miller who, in my opinion, is one of the best individual players that we’ll play all year,” Pollard said. “How that young man is even back at school this year…[I] can’t believe the guy wasn’t drafted.”
The Fighting Camels (3-4) came to Durham last Tuesday and got shut out by Duke in a 4-0 loss, but they were without star senior Cole Hallum, who will present a tough challenge in all phases of the game. The 6-foot-2 outfielder was the 2015 Big South Player of the Year with a .327 batting average and 12 home runs, and also tossed 10 2/3 scoreless innings from the mound as the team's closer.
Hallum is surrounded by a strong core for Campbell, with senior Anthony Lopez batting .433 through seven games and redshirt senior Brian Taylor hitting .346 with 10 RBIs.
The Blue Devils are a much younger team than both Davidson and the Fighting Camels, but several of their dynamic freshmen are already playing like veterans. Left fielder Jimmy Herron and shortstop Zack Kone have appeared in every game this season and are leading the team with batting averages of .393 and .357, respectively.
The duo began the year near the bottom of the lineup, starting multiple rallies to spark a surprising series win against then-No. 10 California. Herron moved up the No. 2 spot in the lineup last weekend, and Kone is poised to join him near the top this week.
“They’re going to be really good players at this level. Both of those guys are plus-plus athletes—they’re really good runners, their baseball skill-set is obviously very good, but in addition to that, [they have] a ton of athleticism,” Pollard said. “They’re also very good competitors, and that’s the reason they’re in there. That’s the reason they’ve quickly climbed up in the lineup.”
Sophomore outfielder Evan Dougherty has also emerged as one of Duke’s top offensive contributors after batting just .186 as a rookie. The Fort Myers, Fla., native homered in three straight at-bats Friday against the Buckeyes to carry the Blue Devils to their fourth straight win, a week after starting the streak with a walk-off single against the Golden Bears.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a guy homer in three straight at-bats, and each ball went further than the previous [one],” Pollard said. “But the thing I really like about it is he came back the next two days and didn’t get outside of who he was as a player, continued to have good at bats.”
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