Duke baseball -- 2023 season
- Thread starter ConorONeill
- Start date
There is enough Bud Lite around to make up for it.
Bad news is we're down 7-3 to State in 6th inning opening round of ACC TOURNEY. Good news is we're safely already in the NCAA tourney.
OFC
OFC
Caught up let the magic start! Just need 1 bottom of the 10th
Heckuva game, I never gave up on our boys. Going to the 11th inning, tied at 7. OFC
Lost in 11 in heartbreaking fashion to 'Pack. We will play one more game on Friday in pool play vs Miami, but can advance no further in ACCT. Nonetheless a win could help our seed in NCAAT. We will make it to the Big Dance as an AT-LARGE selection.
OFC
OFC
Another loss due to poor pitching in the first 3 innings. Crazy how they came back but the seasons over if we keep starting games by continuing to give them multiple runs at basically the start of the game
Duke is in a weird spot and N.C. State is helped by being on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. What I mean is:
- Duke is safely in the NCAAT. The shot at hosting a regional is out the window with last night's result but Duke probably needed to make it to Sunday's championship game to make that happen. So the question becomes: Is it worth it to throw your best starters early in the ACCT and use your top relievers 2-3 times? Or are you better served using the week to set up your rotation for the following weekend in the NCAAT?
- N.C. State is very much on the bubble and *needs* to win this week. That's why the Wolfpack pitched one of their starters on short rest to start last night, and pitched another for the last two innings (meant to get that in the story but didn't).
It's more important, for Duke's purposes, that the Blue Devils seemed to regain some of their April swagger with the comeback last night. Friday's game against Miami is meaningless from an advancement angle, but takes on a ton of importance when talking about how Duke wants to enter the NCAAT.
I thought the 3-2 pitch to Fischer was off the plate, that was a big call with the bases loaded after the IW to Mooney. With the 3 hitter on deck, who knows how big of an inning that would have been if that's ball 4. I book umpires for showcase baseball and Pollard was always one of the best hosts when he was at App State so I'm a big fan. He's a good host at Duke too when our organization plays there. Obviously, I don't pull for the Devils in hoops, but because of Pollard, I always pull for Duke baseball unless they are playing us. Plus, Avent is a whiner so it's hard to pull for them anyway, tough break for you guys. Good luck in the NCAA (Baseball) tournament.
Story on today's loss to Miami.
Includes look at Duke looking for a reset button ahead of next week's NCAA tournament.
Includes look at Duke looking for a reset button ahead of next week's NCAA tournament.
Thanks Conor, we sure enjoy you coverage. Two bitter pills to swallow in the two agonizing losses this week. Hopefully Pollard can come up with some tweeks to WIN these close games. We enter NCAA play on a four game losing streak, three of the L's by one run. OFC
It appears they’re running out of gas, especially in the pitching department . Hopefully some time off will re-energize their batteries and get them back to mid-April form for the NCAAs.
With baseball, they either keep you a bus ride from home or ship you way across country it seems like.
Putting things bluntly ... Duke has to win the opener to have a shot.
Their pitching margin for error is just so razor thin with a taxed bullpen. If you win the first one, you have a little bit of luxury with matching up in the winner's bracket. If you lose it and have to win 4 straight, it's just hard to see them stretching things out to do that.
Now, UNCW as the 3-seed ... Duke could've gotten a worse draw. Honestly think on paper UNCW isn't the best CAA team in the field -- that's Northeastern, which is in Wake's regional. UNCW is just good-to-average in everything, not great at anything. It's not like UNCW has any type of great strength that Duke can't handle.
I'll have a feature tomorrow on Duke, kind of an overarching look at how the program dipped so far last year and has already gotten back to the tournament.
Conor thanks for giving your take. It really provides us one of THE MOST INFORMED looks at the team, and its hopes this weekend!!! Win that first one men!!!! OFC
MJ Metz with three homers and one good knee today.
Full transparency, that's probably a question better suited for somebody in Conway this week.
But I've heard several stories over the years of guys playing on torn ACLs, or partially torn ones. Some ACL tears are the ugly ones that trigger gag reflexes; others are so mundane that guys don't know they have torn ACLs until the MRI. Achilles tears are the ones you literally can't walk with.
Rider beat Coastal Carolina 11-10 in the 10th innings in what was probably the craziest game of the day.
So Duke gets Rider tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the winner's bracket game; Coastal-UNCW will be the elimination game at noon. Blue Devils are in an even better position than I thought they'd be with a win but remember, Duke and Rider split 1-run games about a month ago. It's not like tomorrow night will be easy for Duke.
Here was the final play of Rider-Coastal:
So Duke gets Rider tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the winner's bracket game; Coastal-UNCW will be the elimination game at noon. Blue Devils are in an even better position than I thought they'd be with a win but remember, Duke and Rider split 1-run games about a month ago. It's not like tomorrow night will be easy for Duke.
Here was the final play of Rider-Coastal:
you cannot take much from a southern, d1, midweek game during conference play
I mean, I'm going to take *something* from the fact they played two games less than a month ago and are now playing in the NCAA tournament.
I'd argue you extrapolate more from Duke's mid-weeks in this case since they pitched Bielenson, Proksch, Oschell, Tallon -- basically every top reliever against Rider. It'd be different if Duke had a normal pitching rotation and Rider hadn't seen Duke's "best" arms.
Please do not take this as taking Rider lightly. I am just saying I am of the opinion midweek games in conference stretch run do not mean a lot. I promise Rider was a lot more pumped for those games then Duke.
Yes, they may have seen most of Duke’s top arms, but some of the pinch count, restrictions, etc… that those pitchers had for the regular season are not there.
Plus, when a game starts to get around 7 runs for each team, it starts to be anything goes and the regional hosts get tight and the 4 seed is playing with house money. The regional hosts coach sometimes makes decisions thinking about the whole weekend while the fourth seed plays the “Let’s focus on throwing everything out there to win this game, losing the next two be damned.”
Finally, does Rider play loose or has the “oh crap, we actually did it” take over?
Really, usually only the regional host is the only team with the ability to lose one of the first two games and actually still win the regional (see Texas 2011).
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