After sweeping a struggling Toledo squad, splitting with Campbell and going 1-1 against the Big Ten, the Blue Devils are finally about to take the field for their ACC opener.
There will be no honeymoon phase.
Duke welcomes defending national champion Virginia to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park this weekend for a three-game series, aiming to put the rest of the conference on notice with a strong start to its league slate. The No. 14 Cavaliers return the majority of their offense from last year's title-winning squad, and are working a few new faces into the rotation behind ace Connor Jones.
Penn State capitalized on an error in the fourth inning Wednesday to deal Duke a 2-1 loss, limiting the Blue Devils to just three hits. Duke head coach Chris Pollard was upset that the Nittany Lions outcompeted his squad for nine innings in the defeat, and stressed the need to take every pitch seriously heading into the always-treacherous ACC—which has seven teams in the top 25 and six falling in the top 15.
"We want to try to go out and compete in every single ballgame. It’s a great, great league, it’s a thrill, it’s a privilege and an honor to play in the league," Pollard said Wednesday. "Our goal is to go out and on pitch number one on Friday night to compete, and then follow that up by competing on pitch number two and so on and so on."
Wednesday's meager showing at the plate was the second straight game the Blue Devils (8-5) collected just three hits. But unlike in its 3-2 win against the Rockets Sunday, Duke could not string those hits together against Penn State and failed to cash in on the precious scoring chances they created.
The Blue Devils will have to value and seize those opportunities this weekend, because there might not be many of them. Jones sports a 2.79 ERA heading into Friday's start, and has allowed just 17 hits in his 19.1 innings against 21 strikeouts. Daniel Lynch will take the ball Saturday afternoon and will look to whittle down an ERA that has fluttered to 4.76 in his first three appearances of the season. Six-foot-six right-hander Tommy Doyle closes out the weekend on the hill.
The Cavaliers (9-4) lost ace Nathan Kirby to an injury late last season, forcing Jones into the top spot in the rotation. Virginia has pieced together the rest of its rotation and bullpen behind the junior, but could toss some arms on the field that the Blue Devils have not yet seen.
"They’re replacing a lot on the mound, so they’re having to work through replacing some guys on the mound, and some new faces in their bullpen," Pollard said. "We've got to take our opportunities to score against them."
Duke also has opportunities to match the Cavaliers' arms pitch for pitch, trotting out its regular weekend brigade of junior Bailey Clark, redshirt senior Trent Swart and graduate transfer Brian McAfee. Clark will toe the rubber opposite Jones in the opener Friday in a meeting of pitchers who are both attracting plenty of attention from pro scouts. Duke's sturdy right-hander is off to a stellar start this season, picking up a pair of wins and maintaining a sub-2.00 ERA.
Swart and McAfee have impressed as well, and the trio combined for 21 innings and 23 strikeouts in back-to-back-to-back quality starts during last weekend's series against Toledo. Swart will meet Lynch Saturday in a battle of southpaws before McAfee aims for a second straight win Sunday.
Virginia's offense returns some of its biggest bats from the squad that stormed the field last season in Omaha, Neb., led by Pavin Smith, who has been in the middle of everything for the Cavaliers early in the year. The sophomore slugger has a team-high 19 RBIs and boasts a .596 slugging percentage. That number belies a Virginia squad that finds the gaps—four of seven players with at least 30 at-bats have slugging percentages better than .500.
By contrast, the Blue Devils generally score by moving station-to-station and setting things in motion with the running game, meaning they will likely need to string together a few big innings each night to keep the hard-hitting Cavaliers at bay.
Hank Tucker contributed reporting.
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