Even with the loss of several key players during the off-season, the baseball team enters the spring optimistic after finishing with a 25-31 record last year, its best since 1998.
The addition of 14 freshmen and the return of several injured players lead head coach Bill Hillier to believe that this year will be more successful than recent seasons.
“We’ve worked hard as a staff to try to increase our depth and our power numbers,” said Hillier, who is now in his sixth season at Duke. “Right now, we’re at least two deep in every position, which has never happened since I’ve been around Duke baseball.”
On the field, the team has concentrated on maintaining defensive consistency, something last year’s squad lacked early in the season. Committing 94 errors in 2004, 16 more than its opponents had made, Duke had to emphasize the importance of making clean defensive plays, Hillier said.
“That was definitely an area that we needed to work on,” said junior Adam Murray, who started 42 games at shortstop last year. “We worked a lot with our infield coach, John Yurkow, during the off-season to minimize the amount of errors.”
In this year’s opening series last weekend, three Duke fielding errors in a single inning led to three North Carolina A&T unearned runs and a series split.
“We made no errors in 17 innings against N.C. A&T,” Hillier said, looking at the bright side. “We feel pretty good about that. We have minimized errors a lot more in the first two games than we did last year. More than lack of defense, it was lack of hitting.”
Although meager last weekend, offensive production for the Blue Devils will likely pick up as the players face more live pitching in the next several weeks, Hillier said. Junior Javier Socorro, who had a 12-game hitting streak, averaged .369 at the plate and scored 41 runs in his sophomore season.
Sophomore Eric Baumann and several freshmen will provide the power hitting the Blue Devils had lacked a year ago. Baumann hit three home runs in his first season, second only to pitcher Tim Layden, who was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the sixth round in June 2004.
With the loss of Layden and fellow pitcher Zach Schreiber to the Major Leagues, the Blue Devils lost two the their best throwers, but Hillier said this year’s staff is still stronger than 2004’s.
“I thought Greg Burke was my best pitcher last year, and by the end of the season, Danny Otero was outpitching all three of those guys,” Hillier said of Layden, Schreiber and Burke. “One thing I have this year are better arms top to bottom.”
With a year of experience, Otero and fellow sophomore David Torcise have worked on consistency on the mound and will likely start almost every weekend. Burke, the fifth-year senior who will lead the pitching staff, said he feels completely healthy after having elbow surgery in 2002.
Even though Hillier expects an improved Duke squad, the level of competition in the ACC has also taken a step up. Traditionally one the nation’s most competitive conferences, the ACC has added No. 5 Miami and Virginia Tech.
“They’re going to have a major impact on the conference,” Murray said “I’m just looking for a chance to play the best, to play at the level we’re capable of playing at. We came to take on the best competition.”
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