In the past five years, Duke is just 1-11 against Clemson. The last time the Blue Devils won a series against the Tigers was 2010, when current Duke head coach Chris Pollard was still the skipper at Appalachian State.
But now playing some of their best baseball of the season, the Blue Devils will try to finally end those struggles.
Duke will look to extend its three-game winning streak when it hosts No. 21 Clemson for a three-game weekend series beginning Friday at 6 p.m. at Jack Coombs Field. Junior right-hander Bailey Clark will take the mound against Tiger ace Clate Schmidt in the opener, and southpaw graduate student Trent Swart and Cornell transfer Brian McAfee will close out the series Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m., respectively as the Blue Devils go for their second straight ACC series victory.
Pollard said that Swart will split Saturday's outing with Kellen Urbon. Urbon spent the first part of the season as Duke’s mid-week starter but joined the weekend rotation after Swart left his March 19 start against North Carolina with elbow irritation. Swart—who missed the entire 2015 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery—returned to the hill Tuesday against UNC Greensboro and threw 42 pitches in three scoreless innings.
“It was an emotional lift for our team to see [Swart] back out there,” Pollard said. “Our team has grown up during this stretch. They’ve grown from some of the struggles they had a couple of weeks ago. And in my assessment, [they’ve] become tougher, a little more battle-tested because of it. Guys have learned how to weather the storm a little better than they did earlier in the year.”
Duke's offense was scuffling through the first two weekends of ACC play, but the bats now head into the weekend scorching hot.
A key for the Blue Devils (15-14, 4-8 in the ACC) will be whether they can continue to deliver at the plate. After stumbling through a six-game losing streak in early March, Duke’s hitters have excelled since.
In last weekend's series win against then-No. 23 Georgia Tech, the Blue Devils scored 26 runs in the three games, including 14 in an extra-inning victory April 2. Sophomore Jack Labosky was the key out of the cleanup spot, pounding out five hits, two home runs and nine RBIs against the Yellow Jackets.
Duke picked up where it left off Tuesday in a 7-4 win against the Spartans. After falling into a 4-0 hole, the Blue Devils cut the deficit to one in the fifth inning and then overtook UNC Greensboro in the seventh. Six of Duke’s runs came with two outs, and sophomore Justin Bellinger—who has earned himself more playing time with four multi-hit games in his last five starts—led the way for the Blue Devils with three hits and three RBIs in four at-bats, and center fielder Jimmy Herron added a pair of doubles.
Pollard attributed his squad’s hitting success to more continuity in his batting order after shuffling things from game to game early in the season. Duke’s lineup has been more predictable of late, and players seem to have responded well to more defined roles.
“Since inserting Bellinger into the lineup, the offense has been more productive, and that’s a credit to him. He’s swung the bat very well,” Pollard said. “It also is a product of some fundamental shifts that we’ve made in terms our…pregame strategy. We’re implementing a lot more machine work. We’re really making our practice and pre-game hitting sessions a lot more difficult. The formula is to keep doing those things.”
The Tigers (22-7, 7-5) have won five of their last six games and boast an explosive offense of their own. Led by outfielder Seth Beer and catcher Chris Okey, Clemson has totaled 53 runs in that six-game stretch, and has five regular starters with at least a .300 batting average, 19 RBIs and a .371 on-base percentage.
The Tigers rely on their power bats to drive in runs, slugging .450 as a team with 90 extra-base hits—including 34 home runs. Beer has been solely responsible for 13 of those round-trippers, and is slugging a blistering .935 thus far in an impressive freshman campaign.
Clemson's pitching staff sports a collective 3.60 ERA and holds opposing offenses to a .243 average at the plate. Schmidt, a 6-foot-2 right-hander, leads the Tigers with a spotless 5-0 record in seven starts this year.
“They’re a really good club. They’re playing well. They’re playing with confidence,” Pollard said. “I think Okey will be the first catcher off the board in this upcoming [MLB] draft. And then you’re talking about arguably the potential player of the year in Seth Beer, who is just a freshman…. It’s going to be a fun series.”
The Blue Devils may see their most scoring opportunities Saturday when left-hander Charlie Barnes takes the mound for the Tigers. Although he leads the team in strikeout and innings pitched, Barnes is the only Clemson pitcher with a losing record and sports an mediocre 5.26 ERA.
The Tigers have not yet announced who they will start Sunday opposite.
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