After driving almost seven hours from his home in Levittown, Pa., then-high school senior Ed Conrey found himself in the strange surroundings of historic Jack Coombs field on an October morning nearly two years ago.
Conrey then had a short five hours to show the Duke coaching staff his talent in an annual skills camp run by Duke baseball and designed to attract high school seniors whom Duke was not able to previously recruit.
"I thought [the selection process] was difficult," Conrey said. "I had my doubts. The camp was one day, and if I didn't have a good day, the opportunity pretty much went out the window."
What did manage to go out at Jack Coombs that day was not Conrey's opportunity but, instead, baseballs off his bat.
Conrey blistered the ball all over the field in those five hours and impressed the coaches enough to warrant Duke offer ing him a roster spot.
"We're not budgeted to get out on the road [to recruit]," coach Steve Traylor said. "We have to use our camps in the summer and fall to have kids who have interest in Duke to come here and show us what they can do."
Conrey's quick hands and power to all parts of the field immediately captured Traylor's attention, as did the pitching prowess of flame-throwing lefthander Chris Capuano. When the pair squared off in the intra-squad game to cap off the afternoon, all eyes turned to the confrontation.
Capuano, the only other player that afternoon to earn a roster spot with the Blue Devils, blew a high heater by Conrey to start the at-bat, then fired another fastball low and away. Having already seen two 90 mile per hour pitches from Capuano, Conrey jerked Capuano's next pitch off the left-field fence for a triple.
"I've watched that [at-bat] a lot of times on video tape," Conrey said. "Chris... was mowing people down, striking people out. I was very happy with the triple. Every once in a while, we'll rekindle the old memories. Chris' father and my father like to joke about it out there."
A year and a half later, the guy who slept in the back of the car while his parents drove down the Eastern seaboard to Durham finds himself in another comfortable position-sitting atop the Atlantic Coast Conference in runs batted in with 47.
In 34 games, Conrey is hitting a cool .328. He leads the team in home runs with nine and is second in total bases (80).
Since his move up to the clean-up spot from his previous sixth slot in the batting order, Conrey-a catcher who serves as the designated hitter on this team due to the presence of Gregg Maluchnik-has been producing runs like they're an endangered species.
"He loves to swing the bat," Traylor said. "He's matured a lot this year as a hitter. I think it's really knowing what his role is on the team. He's gone up there with a mindset of driving in runs. It may mean he's swinging at a few more marginal pitches; he's also up there looking for pitches to hit."
Swinging from a crouched stance, Conrey generates unusual power for the quick, compact swing he uses. Traylor credits that no-nonsense stroke, as opposed to the looping swing used by the typical left-handed power hitter, to be the reason why Conrey hits so well to the opposite field.
However, even Conrey's bat can't correct the numerous problems ailing the Blue Devils-problems that have dissolved a promising 18-1 start to the season into a 3-8 conference record midway through the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule.
For a team that held realistic expectations before the season of making its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in the 104-year history of Duke baseball, seeing those hopes nearly shattered before the conference season even reached its stretch run can prove devastating.
"It's very frustrating for a lot of members on the team," Conrey said. "When you go out and give all you have, [the 3-8 record] is tough to swallow. You kind of have to second-guess yourself a little and do a lot of soul-searching. I think we just lost a little bit of focus on what made us the 11th-ranked baseball team in the country.
"If we get some breaks, we can turn the season around. With the group of guys we have, we can go up against any team in the country and be successful. I'm not worried about that. We need to get back what we were doing."
Or, in Conrey's case, keep doing what he's doing.
Note: The baseball team's game against Campbell, originally scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday, was canceled due to rain.
The Blue Devils will next play Elon on Friday at 3 p.m. at historic Jack Coombs Field.
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