Duke Baseball - 2009 Thread

[devildeac]

Big win for the Devils on the road against a quality opponent. Home run by Feiman and grand-slam homer by Lemmerman. Plus, another solid starting effort by Manno.

Agreed. That is a huge win against a top 25 (top 15?) team, one of 6, I think, ACC BB teams in the top 25.

[devildeac]

Final:

Duke 9
'hoos 10 with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th yesterday afternoon.

We had a 9-3 lead going to the bottom of the 8th and our 'pen failed us.

Perhaps this thread could be re-titled: Duke Baseball-2009 Edition as the guys try to qualify for the ACC tourney for the 1st time in centuries, or so it seems.

[roywhite]

Final:

Duke 9
'hoos 10 with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th yesterday afternoon.

We had a 9-3 lead going to the bottom of the 8th and our 'pen failed us.

Perhaps this thread could be re-titled: Duke Baseball-2009 Edition as the guys try to qualify for the ACC tourney for the 1st time in centuries, or so it seems.

The Devils got thumped 12-1 today to lose the series; shame they couldn't hold the lead yesterday. This moves their record to 13-14 in the ACC.

[devildeac]

The Devils got thumped 12-1 today to lose the series; shame they couldn't hold the lead yesterday. This moves their record to 13-14 in the ACC.

I think we may be 1 W (for us) or 1 L from VT or NCSU away from that 8th spot for the ACC tourney. Coughing up that 6 run lead on Saturday hurts, in addition to losing the series to the terps earlier this season.

[dpslaw]

NCSU is out.

[jimsumner]

"NCSU is out."

State cannot overtake Duke because Duke owns the tiebreaker. But I believe State can still finish eighth ahead of BC and VT. Unlikely but possible.

[dpslaw]

My apologies. Earlier today, State was listed at 9-18, instead of 10-17, on the ACC website. It has since been corrected.

[jimsumner]

Manno honored,

"Florida State’s Tommy Oravetz has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Player of the Week, while Duke’s Christopher Manno was tabbed for Pitcher of the Week of the honors.

In Friday’s 11-4 win at Virginia, Manno held the 11th-ranked Cavaliers to just one run over six innings to improve to 5-4 on the season. Manno struck out eight Cavaliers. Virginia entered the game with the second fewest strikeouts in the ACC and currently leads the league in hitting as a team with a .341 average.

Manno’s eight strikeouts were the most by a starter against Virginia since April 19, when Boston College’s Pat Dean also struck out eight, and tied for the second-most strikeouts by a starting pitcher against Virginia.


Manno fired 94 pitches in the start, 62 of which were strikes. Over his last seven starts, Manno is 4-1 with a 2.35 ERA. Manno, who also worked a scoreless inning vs. Davidson earlier in the week, is averaging 9.63 strikeouts per game during that span."

[burnspbesq]

Hoos and Hokies start at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Duke and Tech start at 7.

Both games are listed as being shown on ACC Select, and there should be gametrackers running somewhere.

Duke's magic number to clinch its first ACC tournament berth since 2005 is one. One Duke win or one Hokie loss is all it takes.

One win in the ACC tournament and Duke becomes almost a lock for its first NCAA tournament bid since 1961. Two wins in the tournament and you can book a flight to somewhere. I selfishly hope they get put into a regional in Fullerton or Irvine.

[devildeac]

Hoos and Hokies start at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Duke and Tech start at 7.

Both games are listed as being shown on ACC Select, and there should be gametrackers running somewhere.

Duke's magic number to clinch its first ACC tournament berth since 2005 is one. One Duke win or one Hokie loss is all it takes.

One win in the ACC tournament and Duke becomes almost a lock for its first NCAA tournament bid since 1961. Two wins in the tournament and you can book a flight to somewhere. I selfishly hope they get put into a regional in Fullerton or Irvine.

Not sure 1 W gets us in. The N&O thinks more like 2/3 W over GT this weekend and 2 W in the ACCT gets us an NCAA bid. That might mean 8 teams from the ACC to the NCAA. It might come down to leaving us or BC out.

[jimsumner]

I suspect Duke needs to win at least twice against GT and at least twice in the Tourny to even get in the NCAAT discussion. The RPI is in the 80s and there are far too many non-conference losses to second-tier teams. Teams that lose at home to Liberty tend to stay home from the post-season.

Note that the ACC got six teams in the tourny last season and nobody thinks the league is stronger this season than last season. Eight bids is awfully ambitious and probably unrealistic.

So, Duke has a lot of work to do. A lot.

[chrishoke]

I am excited about Duke potentially qualifying for the ACC Tournament. That will be a big step forward for this program. Duke is not an NCAA tourny team this year. I remember years ago when we had MVP Ryan Jackson and tied, I believe for first place in the ACC and still didn't make the NCAA field. Of course if we win the ACC tourny we willk automatically qualify.

[jimsumner]

Duke tied Georgia Tech for second in the ACC in 1994, four games behind Clemson. Duke hasn't had a winning mark in conference play since then.

[chrishoke]

Thanks for that correction Jim. Tied for second is still great. I believe our current coach was a member of that team.

[burnspbesq]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/...college_sports

Duke is number 67 in a 64-team field.

[burnspbesq]

http://www.hokiesports.com/baseball/...B_OEM_ID=17800

Hoos lead, 1-0, middle of the third.

[roywhite]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/...college_sports

Duke is number 67 in a 64-team field.

Thanks for the updates, and thanks for not using Lunardi terms.

[burnspbesq]

http://www.hokiesports.com/baseball/...B_OEM_ID=17800

Hoos lead, 1-0, middle of the third.

Hokies win on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the tenth.

Duke trails GT, 6-2, in the bottom of the sixth.

[Tom B.]

Duke tied Georgia Tech for second in the ACC in 1994, four games behind Clemson. Duke hasn't had a winning mark in conference play since then.

How that Georgia Tech team managed not to finish first in the ACC is beyond me. That was an awesome team, featuring players like Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra and Jay Payton, and they ultimately won the national championship that year.

In one of their games at Duke, Jason Varitek hit a home run that still ranks as probably the longest homer I've ever seen in person in a live game. He hit it from the left side of the plate, over the right-center field fence. At the time, the public policy building was under construction and there was a large crane sitting probably 40 or 50 feet beyond the right-center field fence. The ball cleared the crane easily. Had to be at least 450 feet on the fly.

[jimsumner]

"That was an awesome team, featuring players like Jason Varitek, Nomar Garciaparra and Jay Payton, and they ultimately won the national championship that year."

Awesome team for sure. But they lost the NCAA title game to Oklahoma.

In fact, the ACC has only won a single CWS, Wake Forest in 1955. Truly hard to believe. Note that Miami won some titles prior to joining the ACC.