Hall of Fame manager and player Casey Stengel once famously quipped, “There are three things you can do in a baseball game: you can win, you can lose, or it can rain.”
So far this season, however, Duke has been an exception to Stengel’s aphorism, accumulating an impressive amount of both wins and rain. And while the Blue Devils hope the victories continue on their weekend road trip to the Sunshine State, a respite from the rainy North Carolina weather of the past few weeks will be just as welcome.
No. 21 Duke will escape south to face Penn State in Bradenton, Fla. in its final three-game series before conference play begins next week. The undefeated Nittany Lions are off to the program’s best start since 1980, having swept Monmouth and Fairfield to open the year. Coincidentally, both those series were played in nearby Cary, N.C., so the Blue Devils will not be the only ones looking forward to better weather this weekend.
“It’ll be nice. It looks like it’s about 80 degrees all four days we’re down there,” said Duke head coach Chris Pollard, standing in another light drizzle on Wednesday. “We’ve had a pretty chilly, pretty wet stretch here in North Carolina over the last couple of weeks, so we’ll take any weather we can get at this point.”
Weather aside, the weekend will be important for the Blue Devils as they continue to develop in the early part of the season, particularly on the mound. Pitching will be a point of emphasis for Duke all season, and although its been hampered by injuries in the first few weeks, the staff has already shown its depth and potential. As a team, the Blue Devils have an ERA of just 2.59; even more impressive, they have struck out 115 batters while walking just 32.
Duke’s starting rotation will remain the same as it has been this weekend, with Graeme Stinson starting Friday, Bryce Jarvis taking the hill on Saturday and Cooper Stinson—Graeme’s younger brother—rounding out series on Sunday. The Blue Devils have also welcomed back members of the staff returning from injury this week, including Matt Mervis Tuesday night against Richmond. Getting those players back into the fold this weekend against Penn State (6-0) will be critical for a team that prides itself on its pitching depth.
“We hope to keep building out [the starters’] pitch counts, but we’ll also look to—if we can, if the opportunity presents itself—get Matt back out there, get Kyle [Salley] back out there because that will make us deeper in the long run,” Pollard said. “We have to be careful about overusing some of these guys that have carried a little bit of a heavier workload to this point. Bill Chillari quite a bit here early on, he’s been a workhorse for us, Hunter Davis has been a workhorse for us, Thomas Gerard has four appearances already on the season so we have to be careful about overusing those guys early because they’re going to be guys we need throughout the course of the year.”
In addition to a strong presence on the mound, Duke (7-1) has also gotten a big boost from its freshman class this season. In addition to Cooper Stinson, fellow rookie Kyle Salley has the potential to make an impact on the mound, and already tossed 3.1 scoreless innings in his college debut against Northwestern. At the plate, their classmate Rudy Maxwell has bounced back from a tough start to the season and leads the team in slugging percentage, while Ethan Murray has provided a steady presence as well. Murray’s role has been especially important as of late with Joey Loperfido out with injury.
“We’ve got freshmen playing big roles for us. Ethan has played really well and given us some good at bats out of the bottom of the lineup and consistent at short. Rudy Maxwell has been terrific, really good at the plate after getting out of the gates a little slow in those first two ballgames,” Pollard said. “And then on the mound you have several freshmen who are making big impacts. A lot of young guys that are getting their feet wet.”
For the Nittany Lions, the bulk of their offense has come from hot starts by Gavin Homer, Jordan Bowersox and Colin Hughes, who have combined to knock in nearly half the team's runs through six games. On the hill, Bailey Dees has been lights-out in two appearances, surrendering just one run and scattering seven hits across 12 innings pitched. He will likely be given the ball Friday afternoon in a showdown with the elder Stinson brother.
Friday’s game will be followed by a 2 p.m. contest Saturday before the finale at noon on Sunday.
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