The independent news organization of Duke University
Duke had its 12-game win streak snapped Friday.
Last summer, I thought the Blue Devils wouldn’t see an NCAA tournament until after I’d graduate. But now, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I’m watching them in the Final Four next April.
Duke’s late-season magic just keeps coming, and its lead magician Michael Rothenberg just keeps delivering.
Anxious hitters, rattled pitchers, tough late-inning decisions—all occasional problems that hurt the Blue Devils throughout the season, but never with major consequence. That changed Sunday.
If the late-season comeback hasn’t been storybook enough for Duke, a team who used a similar run in 2019 to go all the way to the Super Regionals, the names and faces leading this surge makes it almost trite and contrived.
Duke is truly its own frontier within college athletics, and on Wednesday, it decided to commit to its current path for the foreseeable future.
Despite the historic breakthroughs of “Team Four,” most of Duke’s 2021 season has come without major in-game dramatics. Until Friday.
It was one of the boldest ideas in recent memory.
Of all the records set by “Team 4,” none are more indicative of this than last weekend's hit-by-pitch accomplishments, a true team effort if there ever was one.
The Blue Devils opened the weekend with four first-inning home runs, tying a team record. They closed the weekend having scored 33 runs, a school record for an ACC series, and having locked up the 3-seed in the conference tournament, also a program-best.
A May 30 protest in Durham against racism and police brutality. Duke students recounted leading chants, speaking and running from tear gas at similar events across the country.
