Despite a winless series against Miami this past weekend, Duke remains optimistic and ready for its two-game series this week against Maryland-Baltimore County.
The Blue Devils (8-16) will battle the Retrievers (6-7) at Jack Coombs Field in the first game of the series today at 5 p.m, while Wednesday's first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
The Blue Devils had a tough vacation, dropping six of their seven games over spring break, including three consecutive games to ACC powerhouse Miami (21-6)
Duke senior infielder Adam Murray, however, continues to remain confident in the play of the Blue Devils.
"I think we have a lot of momentum right now," Murray said. "I know it doesn't look that way on our win-loss record. I think this weekend we played three pretty good games. And I think it's important for us to get back out there in a game situation as quickly as possible."
Duke, which has struggled both from the mound and in the field recently, appears to have strengthened these aspects of its game lately.
"I think something we've been stressing the past couple of weeks is the importance of playing good defense," Murray said. "I think that's something that we've improved upon a lot since last year. It was an aspect that hurt us a lot last year and I think for the past couple of weeks we've been playing really solid defense."
In terms of pitching, there was only one word that kept coming up to describe the performances of the starters in the Miami series.
"I think our starting pitching this weekend was phenomenal," Murray said. "To hold Miami down the way they did was very impressive.... I think that's something that they should be proud of, and our team is definitely proud of them. Hopefully, they'll have continued success in that area, which will be good against Florida State and throughout the rest of the season."
While Duke's Danny Otero, Jimmy Saris and Jonathan Anderson received the losses in their respective starts this past weekend, Murray insists the pitching staff did not get adequate support from the Blue Devil bats.
Duke struggled at the plate, mustering just 14 hits compared to Miami's 30 knocks.
"I'm very excited that we have been pitching so well and playing strong defense," Murray said. "But I think I speak for everybody when I say I'm disappointed in our offense this weekend. We let the pitching staff down.... In that respect I'm a little disappointed and hopefully this week we'll get the bats going so we can carry some offensive momentum into this weekend."
After this series and a three-game visit to Florida State, the Blue Devils will have played nine games in a mere 12 days.
Duke's busy schedule has allowed the young Blue Devils to gain valuable game experience and to continuously improve throughout the season.
"I think we're just excited to get back out there and play again as soon as possible," Murray said. "I think we're all fortunate enough to have a game [today] and Wednesday so we can build some momentum up for this weekend."
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