Some students party it up in the Caribbean during spring break. Some relax at home. Others play nine baseball games.
With nine contests over spring break, the baseball team will try to improve its 7-4 record against Michigan, North Carolina A&T, Navy and Princeton. In a three-game home stand this weekend, the Blue Devils will take on the Wolverines (0-5), who had a 30-27 overall record last year and placed fourth in the Big Ten tournament.
"I expect Michigan to be very strong," head coach Bill Hillier said. "But, we're going to look to go from pitch to pitch, inning to inning, out to out and see what happens. But we know we have to play well against Michigan or else they'll beat us."
This weekend's games will be the first between the Blue Devils and the Wolverines since 1959. Though Duke holds the all-time series lead 4-2, Michigan will hope to change that this weekend. Friday's pitching match-up will likely pit Duke's Greg Burke against Jim Brauer, whose first start this season against No. 25 Florida ended in a 20-7 Michigan loss. Burke has found more success this season, as he has recovered from an injury that kept him off the mound for two years. He leads the Duke starters with a 2.25 ERA and has struck out 15 batters, while allowing only four walks.
"I feel pretty good on the mound," Burke said. "I'm just trying to get comfortable on the mound now and feel out my pitches. My arm feels good, so I'm just trying to stay healthy, basically."
Offensively, the Blue Devils and Michigan seem evenly matched, as each team is batting in the .280s. However, since Duke has played six more games than the Wolverines, it has had more recent experience, and more experience winning. Duke's only four losses this season were one-run games that could have gone either way. Though difficult, the Blue Devils are confident that they will be able to find a way to win those close games.
"Our pitching is keeping us in the game," pitcher Tim Layden said. "We just need some timely events late in the games. We want to get ourselves over the hump in the games. I think once we figure out our identity late in the game, it'll help us in the ACC later this season. So, the faster we mature and figure out how to overcome that one-run deficit late in the game, we'll be much better."
If nothing else, the team's losses prove its perseverance in close games, as the squad has battled back to make numerous contests competitive this season. The players' abilities to score consistently throughout the game, coupled with a strong bullpen to support them, will help them this weekend.
However, like many struggling baseball teams, the Blue Devils fall victim to "big innings," when they allow multiple runs and temporarily struggle defensively.
"My biggest concern with my pitching right now is to avoid the big inning and getting in trouble with some walks as I get a little tired," Layden said. "And it all snowballs from there. If I can stay away from those big innings, I think I'll be all right."
The "big innings" are not exclusive to Layden, as Zack Schreiber's five-run third inning against UNC-Wilmington Wednesday night put Duke behind the Seahawks by three. Nonetheless, the pitching has been strong outside of select innings.
"We've only had four or five bad innings, pitching wise," Hillier said. "That's pretty good. We're not walking people and we're throwing a lot of strikes. Being able to locate them down the zone, that's really helped us."
Duke will use the next nine games to continue learning how to win even the close matchups as a team.
"I'm really looking forward to this upcoming stretch and just having baseball," Hillier said. "Our work ethic and the way we're competing and working is probably the thing I like the most about this team right now."
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