Professional teams all over the country open up their seasons this week, pushing the Blue Devils out of their flashy downtown home and back on campus for the first time all season.
Duke heads into a midweek clash against UNC Greensboro Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Jack Coombs Field with some momentum after a series win at then-No. 23 Georgia Tech. The Blue Devils have played all of their home games so far this season at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, but they will try to keep their pregame routine consistent as they host Tuesday night’s game and this weekend’s series against Clemson at their on-campus park to accommodate the Triple-A Durham Bulls’ first week of the season.
“The timing of everything is the same. We have the cages, we’ve got the indoor hitting building at Coombs, which I think helps us,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said after Sunday’s win against the Yellow Jackets. “But for the most part, it’s going to look pretty similar to what we do when we’re on the road in terms of the timing.”
The change in scenery will present a challenge to Duke’s newfound hitting prowess from the series against Georgia Tech. The DBAP is more of a hitters’ park than Coombs, with the Blue Monster in left field towering above the warning track just 305 feet from home plate.
Coombs is 325 feet deep down the left field line, which could make it harder for right-handed sluggers like sophomore Jack Labosky or Cris Perez to pull fly balls over the fence for home runs or smack doubles off the wall.
The Blue Devils (14-14) had no problem scoring in another pitchers’ park in Atlanta, though, pushing 24 runs across in the last two games against the Yellow Jackets. Labosky drilled two homers and drove in a career-high eight runs Saturday evening in a 14-13 win, and Perez sparked a seven-run fifth inning in Sunday’s series finale with a go-ahead two-run double. Pollard’s squad will now try to replicate this power Tuesday at Coombs.
“It’s a different park. Our guys are obviously very comfortable there because we practiced there all fall and we practice there a good bit during the spring,” Pollard said. “So the park plays different, but our guys will be used to it.”
Duke may need to score runs in bunches again when it faces a potent Spartan squad that is scoring more than nine runs per game. All but one regular starter for UNC Greensboro (23-6) is hitting .333 or better, and the Spartans hit well for power, too—junior Dillon Stewart is tied for 10th in the nation with nine home runs. Freshman Andrew Moritz leads the team with a .409 batting average, 10 doubles and five triples.
The Spartans enter Tuesday’s game riding an eight-game winning streak, including a comfortable 8-2 win Wednesday at Campbell, which split two games against the Blue Devils this season. UNC Greensboro also split a pair of March contests against Coastal Carolina, which bested Duke in February.
The Blue Devils will likely turn to several different pitchers in short stints to slow down the Spartans, as they have done in their last two midweek games since graduate student Kellen Urbon moved into the weekend rotation. Duke’s bullpen finished the weekend strong with three shutout innings Sunday, and young relievers like James Ziemba, Mitch Stallings, Ryan Day and Labosky may be called upon to continue strong seasons Tuesday.
The Spartans have also varied their midweek pitching throughout the season, but have started senior Keaton Haack—who boasts a 3.78 ERA—on four occasions. Sophomore right-hander Andrew Wantz is a workhorse in long relief out of the bullpen, tossing 41 2/3 innings in 16 appearances with a 1.73 ERA and a 5-0 record.
UNC Greensboro’s pitching depth thins out behind Wantz, though, and the Spartans surrender 5.1 runs per game. A renewed approach at the plate may help the Blue Devils keep up with the Spartan bats, and even at Coombs, no lead will be safe Tuesday.
“We have changed up some things in practice this past week to get back to the offensive approach we did in the fall and we felt like we had success with,” Pollard said. “That sort of created a spark versus Liberty [last Tuesday] and then we were able to carry that over to this weekend.”
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