To Duke head coach Chris Pollard, the beginning of the baseball season is a time for experimentation.
“We’re in an exploration mode at this time of year,” Pollard said. “We put some guys out there on the field and see what they can do, even if it means you have some difficulties.”
The Blue Devils (5-5) will have their last chance to make adjustments before ACC play when Penn arrives for a two-game series at Jack Coombs Field Tuesday. The Quakers (1-3) may seem easy to shrug off after giving up 38 runs in their season-opening series against William & Mary, but Pollard is quick to compare them to his own squad.
“Those things can be misleading,” he said. “I talked to [Penn head coach John] Cole about it. You look at the numbers… but a lot of teams, [Penn] included, are in exploration mode too.”
Penn’s offense has been off to a hot start with a team batting average of .301 through its first four games. Junior left fielder Brandon Englehardt leads off the Quakers’ lineup with a .353 average, followed by freshman second baseman Michael Vilardo with a .333 average. Knocking them home has been senior right fielder Ryan Deitrich, who has been carrying Penn with a .600 batting average, hitting out of the three, four and five holes.
The Quakers’ pitching, however, has not helped to back up their lineup. With a team ERA of 8.42, sophomore righty Dan Gautieri was the only Penn starter to earn a win against William & Mary, allowing two earned runs in 5.2 innings of work. Each of Penn’s other three starters, Connor Cuff, Jeff McGarry and Matt Gotschall, got rocked by the Tribe, all posting double-digit ERAs.
Their struggles present a prime opportunity for Duke’s offense to continue its hot hitting after earning an 8-6 win against Towson Sunday, avoiding a sweep. All eyes will be on junior catcher Mike Rosenfeld, who had a sizzling performance against the Tigers, going 8-for-11 on the weekend. Although Pollard wants his players to be fresh to open conference play against Miami this weekend, his captain’s offensive spark is too much to lose.
“He’s playing great, and he’s swinging the bat great, with lots of confidence,” Pollard said. “I do think it’s important to get him a day of rest behind the plate… but I think we need his bat in the lineup every single day. We don’t really want him to change anything. He should just keep doing what he’s doing.”
Another weapon looking to break out against the Quakers is the Blue Devils’ redshirt sophomore first baseman, Chris Marconcini. In his first 10 games back after missing last season recovering from a knee injury, Marconcini has already belted four home runs and has knocked in a team-leading nine RBIs, despite a .242 batting average.
“It’s hard when you have a full year off, and everybody expected him to jump right into it and light it up from the get-go, but you have to play yourself back into shape,” Pollard said. “Chris is doing that. You can see with each game he’s getting more and more comfortable. He’s poised to catch fire right now.”
Duke’s usual starters—sophomore lefty Trent Swart and junior righties Drew Van Orden and Robert Huber—will most likely not appear on the mound against Penn to be saved for the Miami series. Pollard will instead look to his bullpen, which is rested after each of the three starters went at least five innings against Towson.
“You have to be cognizant of not overusing pitchers that you feel like you may need later,” Pollard said. “But that being said we have everyone available to us on Tuesday, and then from there we’ll read how it goes. We may approach our pitching differently than we have previously.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.