Through injury and slumps, Duke found its way back to the NCAA tournament
After so many years wandering in college baseball’s wilderness, Duke developed a blueprint for making the NCAA tournament in recent years.
The Blue Devils’ selection in 2016 was their first since 1961. After missing the field in 2017, Duke won a regional and fell just one win short of the College World Series last year.
Building on that success by returning to the NCAA tournament this year proved difficult. But the Blue Devils -- players and coaching staff alike -- stuck to their plan and got it done.
“There’s a system in place,” Duke hitting coach Jason Stein said. “You always fall back on that system because it’s a great system. You don’t change You don’t blow things up in the middle of March or April 1. Smart college kids see through that. Good baseball players see through that. You fall back to the level of your training.”
Duke lost nine of its first 12 ACC games this season. Junior pitcher Graeme Stinson, projected as a top-10 pick in next week’s MLB draft, was injured in March and won’t pitch again for Duke this season. Sophomore lead-off batter Joey Loperfido missed 23 games with a wrist injury.
If ever there was a time for human nature to dictate a change to shake things up, this season was it.
Instead, the Blue Devils rolled through April, winning 11 of 12 games during one torrid stretch. They finished 15-15 in ACC play and, at 31-25, were selected to play in the Morgantown (W.Va.) Regional beginning at 4 p.m. Friday against Texas A&M.
It’s the first time since 1952-53 that consecutive NCAA baseball tournaments have included Duke. That it came in a season beset with injuries and slumps makes it all the more satisfying to head coach Chris Pollard and his coaching staff.
“It is the level of validation as a coach that you are doing things right,” said Duke associate head coach Josh Jordan, the team’s recruiting coordinator. “You are not doing all the things right, but you are doing some things right.”
Pollard, in his seventh season as Duke’s coach, saw his team set a school record for wins while going 45-18 in 2018. Only a loss in the third game of the best-of-three super regional series at Texas Tech kept the Blue Devils from the College World Series.
With seven Blue Devils selected in last year’s MLB draft, the coaching staff had to find a way to get back to the NCAA tournament after losing the players responsible for 70 percent of its at bats and 50 percent of its innings pitched.
This season, in addition to Stinson, Duke pitchers senior Hunter Davis and junior Adam Laskey have missed significant time with injuries. While Loperfido is back, junior starting right fielder Chase Cheek and freshman starting shortstop Ethan Murray are both sidelined with injuries.
Pollard said his coaching staff has done its best work this spring to help the team make the NCAA tournament anyway.
“It speaks to No. 1 how well Josh Jordan has recruited,” Pollard said. “The job Jason Stein has done with our offense is extraordinary. The firepower we lost off of last year’s team and still be right in the thick of it in terms of run production.
Then (pitching coach) Dusty Blake, we lost two starting pitchers, we lost two all-American bullpen arms off last year’s team. We knew we had some horses back. Unfortunately those horses battled injuries for much of the year and we were makeshift at a lot of points during the season. Those three guys, along with Chris Gordon our director of operations, never gave in. They kept grinding. I couldn’t be more thrilled for our staff.”
Navigating the injuries wasn’t easy. Loperfido returned April 3 to spark Duke’s resurgence. But, this month, Cheek suffered a season-ending knee injury while Murray is out after suffering multiple facial fractures when he was hit by a pitch during the ACC tournament.
Still, here the Blue Devils are in the postseason. They are seeded No. 3 out of the four teams in the Morgantown Regional, but feel they have a shot to emerge over West Virginia (37-20), Texas A&M (37-21-1) and Fordham (38-22).
“It’s just being able to roll with the punches no matter what,” Loperfido said, “being able to go out there and compete and put good at-bats together and play good defense so our pitchers can step up for us,” Loperfido said. “It’s just guys doing their job and filling roles and being competitive.”
Blake’s pitching staff is averaging 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings, good for No. 3 in the ACC and No. 18 among Division I staffs.
After Stinson’s injury, graduate transfer Ben Gross emerged as Duke’s starter on May 24 against Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament. Versatile sophomores Bryce Jarvis and Matt Dockman help out of the bullpen and in starting roles.
Thomas Girard grew into one of the ACC’s top relief pitchers. The sophomore has a 1.44 earned run average and tied for the ACC lead with nine saves. He’s yet to blow a save opportunity.
He said Blake offered him specific things to take to the mound and it has worked well.
“One of the big things for me was not being passive on the mound, pitching with what I had,” Girard said. “Really filling up the strike zone and attacking with my pitches. Not letting the hitter pick what I threw.”
No matter what happens in West Virginia this weekend, Duke has already established itself as a regular in NCAA tournament conversations. After not making an appearances from 1962-2015, the Blue Devils are in the tournament for the third time in the last four years.
That’s one major goal achieved this season with more to go, even if more adversity should come Duke’s way.
“We are not reactionary,” Jordan said. “This is what we’ve been doing since we’ve been here. It’s not happenstance.”
Duke vs. Texas A&M
Morgantown Regional, NCAA baseball tournament
When: 4 p.m. Friday
Where: Morgantown, WV
Watch: ESPN2
This story was originally published May 30, 2019 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Through injury and slumps, Duke found its way back to the NCAA tournament."