Surging Devils prep for Tobacco Road showdown

Duke’s hopes of bringing the Carlyle Cup home for a third-straight year will be at stake on the diamond this weekend.

The Blue Devils (12-27, 3-15 in the ACC) will travel to North Carolina for a three-game series at Boshamer Stadium against the No. 10 Tar Heels (30-8-1, 11-4-1), who are fresh off a 3-2 win over Virginia Commonwealth Wednesday.

Duke will need to win the series if it wants to prevent the Cup from landing in Chapel Hill for the first time since 2002.

The Blue Devils will face a Tar Heel squad that has won the annual series each of the past three years, taking eight of the nine games between the two teams. UNC has been successful in the ACC this year—Clemson and Miami have been the only conference opponents to defeat the Tar Heels so far.

The Blue Devils have won three of their last four games, and they said the series could not have come at a better time. Duke has played its best baseball of the season over the past week. The Blue Devils captured their first ACC series of the year with a decisive 6-1 victory over Maryland Sunday. Duke’s momentum carried into Wednesday’s thrilling win against Davidson that was decided with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. The Blue Devils have won consecutive games for the first time since mid-February.

“We’ve got some momentum going into Carolina this weekend,” first baseman John Berger said. “Hopefully we’ll go over there and keep playing like we’ve been playing.”

Although the team has faced increased scrutiny after The Chronicle reported on the steroid use of former Blue Devil players, Duke has put together its best string of games since it swept Maryland Eastern Shore Feb. 11-13.

“I’m real proud of the way that everyone’s kind of put all of the distractions aside and just played baseball,” Berger said. “I can’t say enough about it. It shows there’s a character to our team and to our coaching staff.”