Life in the Valley

Duke Seeking First Omaha Trip Since ’61

Upon us is a Super Regional no one saw coming. The host Duke Blue Devils went on the road in the last round, capturing the Athens Regional against host Georgia and Oklahoma State. The Blue Devils are making their 4th Super Regional appearance since 2018, but they are hosting postseason baseball for the first time.

Their opponents, of course, are one of 2 Cinderellas still in the field, the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament champion Murray State Racers. Joining Texas-San Antonio in Supers (the Roadrunners are at UCLA for Supers after eliminating Texas and winning the Austin Regional), the Racers became the 10th 4-seed in the current format to win a regional, outlasting host Mississippi on Monday night, 12-11, in a game no Murray State fan will ever forget.

On one hand, Murray State perhaps is thankful it doesn’t have to face Georgia in Athens for this Super. On the other, Duke has to be thrilled to be hosting and facing a previous 4-seed. But at this point, the 16 teams left are all really good, some even perhaps great. However, with a trip to Oma on the line for the College World Series, neither is going to overlook the other, and we are perhaps in for a weekend of great baseball in Durham.

Duke arrives at this Super Regional with a 40-19 record, having gone 17-13 in the double-tough Atlantic Coast Conference. The Blue Devils swept through the Athens Regional, beating the hosts once and Oklahoma State twice. Their lineup boasts large numbers of extra-base hits and high OPS marks, much like Murray State.

Let’s take a deeper look at the Blue Devils, a program Murray State will meet for the first time when the Super Regional series begins at noon Central on Saturday on ESPNU (Clay Mattock, Gregg Olson).

Duke is hitting .290 as a team this season. But while other teams may have more impressive averages, what Duke (.946 OPS) does with those hits is pretty impressive. The Blue Devils have 100+ doubles (118) and home runs (106) and slug .521 as a group. But they’ve also drawn 392 walks in 59 games, while being hit 95 times, for a .425 on-base percentage. They get on base, they hit the ball hard, and they score 8.41 runs per game. They do seem similar to Murray State in many ways, though Duke’s 106 homers well out pace the 71 by the Racers, while the Racers have more two-baggers (143).

Duke’s offense is normally led by third baseman Ben Miller, who is hitting .325 with 20 homers and 62 RBIs, but he’s dealing with an arm injury after being hit by a pitch during the Athens Regional and his status for Saturday’s Game 1 is up in the air. Not up in the air is the situation of teammate and starting center fielder A.J. Gracia, absurdly suspended for Game 1 after being ejected in Duke’s regional clincher for carrying a celebration prop. The NCAA, claiming to “always be there for student-athletes,” missed the mark entirely with this celebration prop rule to start with. And the suspension would be comical is just downright ludicrous.

Not that the Blue Devils don’t still have weapons for the opener. Shortstop Wallace Clark (.310), right fielder Tyler Albright (.304), DH Sam Harris (.311), and left fielder Ben Rounds (.303) all hit better than .300 and Jake Hyde is at .297 with 11 homers and 65 RBIs. Six Duke regulars have an OPS of at least .955, including Miller and Gracia.

On the mound, Owen Proksch probably gets the ball for Game 1, having made 11 starts this season in 18 appearances. Proksch has the lowest ERA among likely starters at 4.83, but that belies an impressive 1.24 WHIP. Proksch, a 6-3, 225-pound junior lefty from Southlake, Texas, made 54 relief appearances before this season, but has ascended into a starting role, fanning 84 batters in 59 2/3 innings. He’s given up 9 homers and opponents are batting .219 against him.

Who starts beyond him, especially if the series goes 3 games, is a bit of a mixed bag. Kyle Johnson is 4-3 with a 6.34 ERA in 10 starts and 8 relief appearances, while Andrew Healy went 3-3 (7.29) in 13 starts, but he averaged less than 4 innings per appearance.

Reid Easterly is the leading arm out of the bullpen, going 9-2 with a 3.04 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 35 appearances. Easterly has been a workhorse, averaging nearly 2 innings per game (68), with just 16 walks and 63 strikeouts, and he’s only allowed 4 homers. While Duke’s offense has drawn 392 walks, the staff has only conceded 208. Mark Hindy has 37 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings of relief, while James Tallon (1-2, 3.93) and Gabe Nard (6-2, 4.17) have been regular workers in relief for the Blue Devils.

Duke has a 4.83 team ERA, 1.33 team WHIP, no complete games, and 7 saves (led by Easterly’s 4). Opponents bat .245 vs. the Blue Devils.

Like Murray State, Duke is one of the better defensive teams in the country, with a .978 fielding percentage.

Head coach Chris Pollard has done a great job in Durham, building Duke from the bottom to a near Super Regional regular in his 13-year tenure, which has featured 419 wins. Before Pollard arrived, Duke hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since its last College World Series appearance in 1961. But getting past Super Regionals is the biggest hump in the sport, and 3-game losses at Texas Tech in 2018; Vanderbilt in 2019; and Virginia in 2023 have kept the door to Omaha shut. Twice, in ’19 and ’23, Duke won the opening game only to drop the next 2.

But none of those series, and in fact no postseason game ever, has been played in Durham. Duke has played tournament games in Kannapolis, Charlotte, and Gastonia, but never in their friendly confines.

If that changes Duke’s luck remains to be seen.

Ed Morgans is the founder of MVCBaseball.com. An Evansville graduate, Ed has written about and broadcast college baseball, while following the sport for 40 years.