The Blue Devils are headed to Myrtle Beach.
Duke was named the No. 2-seed in the Conway, S.C., regional Monday, joining No. 1-seed and the No. 10-seed nationally Coastal Carolina as well as No. 4-seed Rider and No. 3-seed UNC Wilmington. The Blue Devils will first take on the Seahawks Friday.
The regional is set up in a double-elimination format, so Duke is guaranteed at least two games. If the Blue Devils win the regional, they will take on the winner of the Charlottesville Regional hosted by Virginia.
The Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina earned the right to host despite losing to Louisiana in the Sun Belt tournament. They are led by super senior Payton Eeles, who hits leadoff for Coastal Carolina with a .500 on-base percentage, and sophomore slugger Derek Bender, who leads the team with 18 home runs and 80 RBI.
UNC Wilmington will likely come at Duke in the opening game with one of its two dominant starters. Both Zane Taylor and Jacob Shafer have more than 80 innings pitched and seven wins on the season. Offensively, the Seahawks are led by redshirt junior Jac Croom, who has hit .363 with 12 doubles on the season.
The final team in the regional, the Broncs of Rider, are a familiar foe for the Blue Devils. The two teams split a pair of games at Jack Coombs field in the regular season, both of which were decided by one run. Although the Broncs are hitting just .268 as a team, strong pitching helped lead them to a conference championship.
Duke, who is currently on the wrong side of a four-game losing streak, will look to turn things around in Conway. Head coach Chris Pollard said during the ACC tournament that graduate student Alex Gow was set to start the opening game, but Gow left the Blue Devils’ last game against Miami with an apparent injury. The team will look to advance to its first Super Regional since 2019.
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Dom Fenoglio is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.