The baseball team travels to Tallahassee this weekend for its biggest challenge of the year-a three-game tilt against one of the nation's best programs, sixth-ranked Florida State. The Seminoles have continued their dominance of the Atlantic Coast Conference this year by posting a 12-0 conference mark thus far, coupled with their 34-8 record overall.
When Duke takes the field on Friday night, it will look across the field at a team that is not only the class of the ACC, but also one of the pre-eminent teams in the college game. As much as that might appear to be an intimidating factor, the Blue Devil players see it simply as a no-lose situation.
"We've basically got nothing to lose-they're undefeated in the conference," junior second baseman Frankie Chiou said. "We definitely have a team that can do well, so I'm looking forward to it."
"There's no way to look at this as a pressure situation for us," head coach Steve Traylor said. "Nobody, I don't care who it is, goes in there expecting to win. They've been virtually unbeatable at home-but we do know we can win based on what's happened the last couple of years. We did beat them two out of three the last time we were down there, although not too many of these guys were here then."
Although Duke is only 9-23 against FSU lifetime, it has had recent success against the Seminoles, including a 14-5 win in Durham last year and the 2-1 series triumph on the road two years ago.
"Having success in the past just adds on to our confidence," freshman third baseman Jeff Becker said. "Along with that, and the way we're playing this year, the chances of winning a game or two are very possible."
The key to Duke's past and continued success against such imposing teams as Florida State is its ability to stay composed. The Blue Devil players seem quite aware of the fact that there is no pressure on them to win the series.
"We've done well in the past because we've come out with a loose attitude," Chiou said. "They have a lot of talent on their team, a lot of first round picks, so we just go out there and play our best."
"We're going to give them a hard time, I think," freshman rightfielder Jordan Litrownik said. "We try not to put too much pressure on ourselves for any of our big series. We like to just go out and play and try and have a good time and that's when good things happen."
Every year the Seminoles seem to have one phase of their game that far outdistances their competition; this year it is undoubtedly their hitting. FSU leads the ACC with a .345 team batting average and 412 runs scored. The attack is led by centerfielder J.D. Drew who leads the conference in batting average (.444), RBIs (60), runs scored (65) and slugging percentage (.903). He is also second in home runs with 14.
Duke will counter with its stellar offensive tandem of senior centerfielder Mike King (.387, 9 HRs, 50 RBIs) and sophomore catcher Gregg Maluchnik (.355, 48 RBIs).
The Blue Devils' best hope may rest on the arm of their ace starting pitcher, senior lefthander Scott Schoeneweis (7-2). Schoeneweis has been dominate all year, posting a 2.28 ERA and striking out an average of 11.8 batters per nine innings pitched. FSU will most likely counter with its number one starter, Randy Choate (10-2, 3.01).
The rest of the Duke pitching rotation was left in slight disarray as No. 2 starter Richard Dishman was needed to start in Wednesday's game against ETSU. With that the case, the Blue Devils will start sophomore Jim Wendling on Friday and just wait and see about Sunday.
"Wendling will take the first start," Traylor said, "and he's given us a couple of good starts in a row. Schoeneweis is going to go Saturday night, and that's as far ahead as we're looking right now. Once we get to Sunday, we'll regroup, see what pitchers are available and put it together as best we can."
If Duke can successfully hold FSU off until the late innings, it will undoubtedly turn to its stopper, senior David Darwin (7-1). Darwin gave up six hits on Wednesday in two innings, but has been flawless otherwise this year.
Florida State heads into the series having soundly defeated Jacksonville, 9-4, in a midweek game. Last weekend however, the Seminoles were upended by cross-state rival Miami.
"They just got swept by Miami last weekend," Litrownik said, "so hopefully if we can the first game, we might be able to get them down in the dumps and be able to take advantage of that."
Duke is also coming off of its big non-conference win over ETSU in which the entire lineup contributed to the 10-4 mauling.
"This weekend is a big weekend;" Becker said. "We feel well that we can compete with them. After [the ETSU] game with everybody hitting and contributing, we feel our chances are even better."
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