It was a rough weekend for the Blue Devils, whose hitting woes resurfaced at an inopportune time against offensive powerhouse Pittsburgh as they dropped all three games and were outscored 16-8 in total.
The Blue Devils will look to get back on track as they make the two-hour drive west to face in-state foe Davidson 6 p.m. Tuesday at Wilson Field.
Duke (14-11) won last season's matchup against the Wildcats 9-3, but Davidson has been hot of late, winners of nine of its last ten games after a slow start to the season.
The Wildcats (13-7)—like the Panthers—are a strong offensive team with seven of their starters batting better than .300 on the season. Sophomore shortstop Sam Foy and senior center fielder Forrest Brandt lead the Wildcats with averages of .384 and .375, respectively. Foy also leads the team in hits with 33 while Brandt paces Davidson with 21 runs scored and shares team leads in RBIs with 20 and home runs with three.
With a versatile bullpen, Duke head coach Chris Pollard may have the tools to slow the Wildcats down.
“We’ll try to match them up,” Pollard said. “That’s one of the advantages we have out of our pen... the ability to match guys up. So we’ll try to do that: put our guys in the ball game in a position that gives them the best opportunity to be successful.”
On the offensive side, the Blue Devils may have to play without senior third baseman Jordan Betts for the third straight game. Betts aggravated a lower back injury in the first game against Pittsburgh and sat out the doubleheader on Saturday due to continued tightness.
Prior to the injury, Betts had been a force for Duke at the plate batting .474 with four runs scored and three RBIs over a five-game stretch.
Duke has found some offense in Betts’s absence namely from senior infielder Matt Berezo—who has only started 11 of 24 games but found more playing time as of late. Although the rest of the Blue Devil offense struggled over the weekend, Berezo went 9-for-14 with two runs scored and is currently riding a five-game hitting streak, all of which were multi-hit games.
“[Berezo has] a really good two-strike approach and a willingness to hit the ball to the backside—to drive the ball to the opposite field,” Pollard said of his player’s recent success at the plate. “The majority of his hits have come with two strikes and… come to the opposite field. He’s just got a really good approach right now with two strikes and that's allowing him even when he gets in bad counts to still have success.”
When asked where he thought he might put Berezo in Tuesday’s lineup, coach Pollard said he was not sure yet. But, based on how well Berezo and fellow senior Mark Lumpa performed at the top of the lineup in the second game Saturday—they combined for nine hits, a walk, and three runs scored—it is likely that at least that part of the order will remain the same.
The Blue Devils would like to grab one win on this four-game road trip before they host a three-game series against rival North Carolina over the weekend. The current three-game losing streak is the longest of the season for Duke and a fourth loss would make it the longest since a five-game skid early last May.
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