Amidst the craziness that is March Madness, Duke baseball is looking to extend a season-long five-game winning streak—their longest winning streak since April 2013.
Duke will visit new conference rival Pittsburgh for a three game set this weekend at Charles L. Cost Field. The first two games of the series are set for 3p.m. on Friday and Saturday and the series finale is set for Sunday at noon as Duke tries to add a couple more wins to its streak.
Although the Blue Devils have gotten back to their winning ways, the team's coaching staff said that there is no singular key to Duke's success.
“I don't know that we’re doing a whole lot differently than we were prior to the five game stretch,” head coach Chris Pollard said of his teams play. “I think if anything you’re starting to see the offense catch up and catch fire a little bit, and a big part of it has been Jordan Betts getting going and getting heated up offensively. He’s been a big spark plug for our offense.”
Senior third baseman Jordan Betts has been an impressive 8-for-19 at the plate during the last five games with three RBIs, four runs scored, and five extra base hits.
Redshirt senior outfielder Ryan Deitrich has been another player that has come on strong during the streak. Deitrich, a transfer from Pennsylvania, made his Duke debut in a 6-1 win over LaSalle earlier in the season but had been struggling over the weeks leading up to the start of this winning streak. Deitrich went 0-for-11 in the five games leading up to his team's series-opener against Notre Dame—the first win of the streak. Since then, he’s hit .500 at the plate with a home run.
“It’s huge,” Pollard said of having Deitrich and Betts heating up. “You’re going to have stretches of the season where your pitching carries you and your defense carries you, but you’re also going to have stretches where your offense has to win a few games for you…. To get some of these guys going and to get some scoring balance throughout the lineup I think is going to be really important for us.”
During their winning streak, the Blue Devils have scored a combined 31 runs and have hit .265 while holding their opponents to only 12 runs and a combined .186 batting average.
Duke faces a different type of enemy this weekend in a Pittsburgh team that has scored at least five runs in its last eight games. In five of those games they scored at least 10.
“They’re really starting to heat up offensively,” Pollard said. “They’re a very veteran club, and they’re starting to get it going at the plate, and I think we have to be able to score to stay away from them. They’re an offense—you’re not just going to shut them down.”
The Panthers are led by senior outfielder and first baseman Steven Shelinsky, Jr. Shelinsky is batting .360 on the year and is currently riding a six-game hitting streak during which he is batting .500 and has driven in 11 runs.
Seniors Stephen Vranka and Casey Roche and junior Boo Vasquez also help lead Pitt on the offensive end. Vasquez was drafted in 2012 by the Colorado Rockies and leads his team in homeruns and RBIs with 4 and 21, respectively.
The Blue Devils have had solid pitching the entire year and currently hold the second-best ERA in the ACC at 2.52. Duke will be sending pitchers Drew Van Orden, Andrew Istler, and Michael Matuella to the mound this weekend to try and combat this fiery Pittsburgh offense. If Duke can extend its winning streak to seven this weekend, it would be the longest winning streak for the Blue Devils since 2010.
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