For the first time in head coach Sean McNally's three-year tenure at Duke, the Blue Devils will travel to Raleigh to play N.C. State.
Due to ACC scheduling-where teams miss one conference opponent for consecutive seasons-Duke (22-10, 4-10 in the ACC) hasn't met the Wolfpack (21-10, 8-6) on the diamond since 2005, the year before McNally's arrival.
"A lot of our guys have never been over there, and I haven't been over there," McNally said. "We're really anticipating it and looking forward to it."
The Blue Devils snapped a five-game losing streak-having been swept in ACC series against Miami and Boston College-shutting out UNC-Greensboro 10-0 Wednesday night. Duke will try to carry that momentum into Doak Field this weekend.
"This was a big game for us building momentum for this weekend," junior catcher Matt Williams said after the victory over the Spartans. "It's nice to break our little losing streak and get back on track."
The Wolfpack hopes to derail the Blue Devils with its excellent pitching staff. N.C. State ranks fifth in the nation in earned run average at 3.09. Sophomore ace Clayton Shunick will take his 3-3 record and 2.13 ERA to the mound Friday night, matching up with Duke's Andrew Wolcott (2-2, 3.12 ERA).
In the win over UNC-Greensboro, the Blue Devils returned to doing the little things that had carried them to a fast start this season. Duke excelled at getting ahead in the count on the mound and situational hitting at the plate.
McNally knows that's the key to pulling out the team's first road series win in conference play since late April 2006 at Virginia Tech.
"Our concentration and our focus for the weekend will be to do the things we need to do and the things we've done to this point before the Boston College series," McNally said. "We've got to do the little things. We've got to pound the strike zone and be really aggressive defensively and aggressive on the bases."
Katie Riera contributed to this story.
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