Duke baseball tries to build momentum against Liberty

The Blue Devils started to climb out of a midseason slump with a strong performance to end the weekend, but a tough midweek test could cause any signs of momentum to flame out.

Duke hosts Liberty Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park after snapping a six-game losing streak with a win in its series finale against Wake Forest. The Flames are coming off a weekend sweep of UNC-Asheville and beat the Blue Devils 1-0 Feb. 27 to snap Duke’s longest win streak of the year at four games.

“We knew when we ramped up the schedule the way we did that this was arguably going to be our toughest stretch of the year,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said Monday on his weekly radio show. “What makes our league so difficult is you don’t have a chance to catch your breath, and then when you play regional-type opponents in the midweek, you really don’t have a chance to catch your breath. It makes you better.”

Duke’s first matchup with Liberty (16-10) was on a Saturday in the Caravelle Resort’s Baseball at the Beach Tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C., but neither team will use its weekend rotation this time, putting more pressure on the Blue Devil bullpen.

Since southpaw Trent Swart missed his regular Saturday start against the Demon Deacons with an unspecified injury, usual midweek starter Kellen Urbon started in his place and may start again this weekend against Georgia Tech, so he will not be available for much of Tuesday’s contest.

Duke (11-13) is likely to split the game up among several relievers for the second straight week after the Blue Devils used seven pitchers last Tuesday against East Carolina. Sophomore Ryan Day allowed two runs in two-thirds of an inning and senior Nick Hendrix surrendered three more as East Carolina rallied from a three-run deficit in the final three innings to win, but Duke’s bullpen received valuable experience—both good and bad—against Wake Forest.

With the Blue Devils clinging to a two-run lead in the eighth frame Sunday, Day struck out reigning ACC Player of the Year Will Craig with two runners on and nobody out before redshirt sophomore James Ziemba struck out Ben Breazeale on a payoff pitch to help Duke hang on to the lead.

“You’ve got a team that’s unquestionably on its heels after a very difficult week—you’d seen a ballgame sort of slip through your fingers on Saturday, and you’re staring that in the face again in the bottom of the eighth,” Pollard said. “Those were two of the bigger outs of the season to date, especially the out by Ryan Day there.”

Sophomore southpaw Mitch Stallings recorded the final four outs of Sunday’s contest for his first save of the season and can be expected to take the mound again Tuesday if the game is close. The Atlanta native tossed two innings last week against the Pirates, who manufactured a run against him with a hit batter and a seeing-eye single.

“We’re starting to establish that depth out of our pen and starting to be able to assign roles, so I think that’s going to help us as we look to the second half of the season,” Pollard said. “Mitch is one of those guys that’s very good about raising his level of play to the moment and certainly has an opportunity to grow into that role.”

If Duke gets another strong performance from its bullpen, the Blue Devil bats will have to overcome recent struggles at the plate to give their staff some run support. Pollard’s squad has eclipsed three runs just once in its last seven games and went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position in February’s pitchers’ duel against the Flames.

Freshman Jack DeGroat started Liberty’s midweek game last Tuesday against Maryland and could take the hill again Tuesday night. The 6-foot-3 right-hander sports a 5.27 ERA in five appearances and has struck out 14 batters in 13 2/3 innings pitched.

Although the Flames scored just one run to squeak by Duke a month ago, their biggest strength is at the plate. D.J. Artis, Will Shepherd and Andrew Yacyk have all started every game and are all batting better than .300, and Artis has developed into a formidable leadoff threat with a .411 batting average and nine stolen bases. Liberty averages 6.3 runs per game and exploded for 22 runs March 15 at Virginia Tech.

“You’ve got a Liberty team…that knows themselves a lot better than when we played them [five] weeks ago,” Pollard said. “They were mixing in some junior college transfers. Now they’ve really kind of found their team, and they’re really hanging their hat on their offense.”