Duke Baseball 2016

[dukie’s_daughter]

Whoo-Hoo! I vote for a repeat performance tomorrow!

...I'd like to try it one more time!! Go Duke!!

[chrishoke]

Outstanding pitching today! 12-14 in the league. Go Devils!

[arnie]

Divisional standings are pretty meaningless in the context of the ACC Tournament. A better way to list it is:

Six teams leading for a bye into the round-robin:
1. Miami 16-6
2. FSU 14-6
3. Louisville 16-8
4. N.C. State 13-9
5. Virginia 14-10
6. Clemson 13-14

The four teams leading for the play-in spots (two teams will win one game to join the round-robin):

7. Georgia Tech 11-12
8. Wake 11-13
9. Notre Dame 10-12
10. Pitt 10-13

Fighting to get in the field

Boston College 11-14
Duke 10-14
UNC 10-14

Only Virginia Tech (5-19) is out at this point.

Interesting how close it is at the bottom. Only five ACC teams have a winning record in the league ... if Duke could somehow go 5-1 in its two final series to get to 15-15, there is a reasonable chance that Duke could get a first-round bye into the round-robin. But I think that's unlikely with this week's three-game set with FSU (Friday-Sunday at the DBAP). We'll be lucky to get one. We need to be in range for our final three-game series at Pitt ... we could be fighting them (as well as UNC and BC) for the last spot or two in the field.

With Duke now 12-14 and 9 of the leagues 14 teams below .500, if we can split the next four games that should get us in. Might even make it with one more win depending on how the other games play out.

[Bob Green]

Duke has an early 1-0 lead on FSU. Today's game isn't on ESPN3 so all I can see is the Live Stats at GoDuke.com:

http://www.goduke.com/liveStats/v2/b...db_oem_id=4200

[chrishoke]

Duke has an early 1-0 lead on FSU. Today's game isn't on ESPN3 so all I can see is the Live Stats at GoDuke.com:

http://www.goduke.com/liveStats/v2/b...db_oem_id=4200

GoDuke.com is showing the video, but you have to be a subscriber.

Still 1-0 good guys in the fourth.

[chrishoke]

FSU ties it up in the top of the 4th but Duke retakes the lead 2-1 in the bottom of the inning.

[chrishoke]

A dinger and two dropped pop ups give FSU the lead in the 5th 3-2.

[chrishoke]

After Duke ties it up in the bottom of the inning, FSU retakes the lead 4-3.

[chrishoke]

4-3 FSU heading into the bottom of the eighth. Come on Devils!!

[Bob Green]

Final: FSU 4, Duke 3. While a series sweep would have been nice, winning 2 out of 3 against the #6 team in the nation is a pretty good weekend. Now we need to go to Pittsburgh and win a couple more games.

[chrishoke]

No sweep. FSU wins 4-3.

[Olympic Fan]

Okay, bear with me ... I working off the ACC website, which is not the most reliable in the world. Trying to put together yesterday's standings (which I'm not 100 percent sure are right) and today's scores.

This is what I get with all of Sunday's scores in:

1. Miami 19-6
2. Louisville 19-8
3. Florida State 15-8
4. Virginia 16-11
5. N.C. State 13-12
6. Wake Forest 13-14
(tie) Clemson 13-14

8. Georgia Tech 12-14
9. Notre Dame 11-13
10. Duke 12-15

11. Boston College 11-14
12. UNC 11-15
13. Pitt 10-16
14. Virginia Tech 6-20

Notre Dame is at UNC Monday to complete this weekend round.

The final weekend has Duke at Pitt for three games, Miami at FSU for three, Louisville at Wake for three; UNC at NC State for three, Clemson at Notre Dame for three, BC at Georgia Tech for three games.

Remember, the top six make the round-robin ... the next four face a sudden death play-in game .. the last four are out.

As it now stands, Duke would face either Clemson or Wake Forest Tuesday next week in a play-in game -- the loser out, the winner moves on to the round-robin and would be guaranteed three more games.

It's still very close at the bottom -- with a good weekend in Pittsburgh, Duke could make the top six and win a bye into the round robin. But with a bad weekend, the Devils could be out.

[awhom111]

One side effect of our play of late is that our RPI has soared. If the latest NCAA rankings are accurate, we are now up to 27. That means we can actually think about the NCAA tournament. If you had told me that when I was at Duke, I would have been even more skeptical of that than our football team making a bowl game. It has been a tremendous effort from all involved and hopefully just the start of what we can do.

[Olympic Fan]

North Carolina beat Notre Dame today ...

That drops Notre Dame from 11-13 to 11-14 -- below Duke's 12-15.

But it improves UNC to 12-15 -- the same as Duke. And they have the tiebreaker (a 3-0 series sweep of Duke). So Duke remains the No. 10 seed in the ACC tourney (as of today).

This weekend's series at Pitt remains huge. Sweep all three games and Duke will most likely earn a top six finish and a bye into the round robin. Go 0-3 and Duke probably misses the tourney.

Too many teams too close to guess what a 2-1 or a 1-2 finish would mean.

[BlueDevil14]

One side effect of our play of late is that our RPI has soared. If the latest NCAA rankings are accurate, we are now up to 27. That means we can actually think about the NCAA tournament. If you had told me that when I was at Duke, I would have been even more skeptical of that than our football team making a bowl game. It has been a tremendous effort from all involved and hopefully just the start of what we can do.

It's amazing how our RPI has climbed from the gutter when Pollard took over the program. Steadily increased each year under his leadership. Pretty incredible, really, for 4 years in, regardless of this weekends outcome.
That being said, let's sweep Pitt and leave no doubt!

[Olympic Fan]

It's amazing how our RPI has climbed from the gutter when Pollard took over the program. Steadily increased each year under his leadership. Pretty incredible, really, for 4 years in, regardless of this weekends outcome.
That being said, let's sweep Pitt and leave no doubt!

Duke is 11-14 against teams that were ranked at the time we played them -- we took 2 of 3 from No. 10 Cal, 2 of 3 from No,. 18 Clemson, 2 of 3 from No. 21 Georgia Tech.

Okay, I just checked and we are 9-10 against the current top 25 -- 1-2 vs. No. 3 Miami, 1-2 vs. No. 8 Virginia, 2-1 vs. No. 9 FSU, 1-2 vs. No. 13 NC State, 2-1 against No. 19 Clemson, 0-1 vs. No. 20 Coastal Carolina, 2-1 against No. 22 Georgia Tech.

15 of our 21 losses to teams that have been in the top 25 (ECU was not ranked when we lost to them, but they have been in the poll and just dropped out this week) ... we've also won seven of our last eight games.

Will that get us our first NCAA Tournament bid since 1961 (when Duke reached the College World Series)? I don't know -- we've been screwed at least twice before in recent years.

I do know that to even have a chance, we'll have to finish strong -- and that means winning the series in Pittsburgh this weekend (the weather forecast is not good) and doing well in the ACC Tournament. It's possible, but we are a clear bubble team at the moment.

[BlueDevil14]

Duke is 11-14 against teams that were ranked at the time we played them -- we took 2 of 3 from No. 10 Cal, 2 of 3 from No,. 18 Clemson, 2 of 3 from No. 21 Georgia Tech.

Okay, I just checked and we are 9-10 against the current top 25 -- 1-2 vs. No. 3 Miami, 1-2 vs. No. 8 Virginia, 2-1 vs. No. 9 FSU, 1-2 vs. No. 13 NC State, 2-1 against No. 19 Clemson, 0-1 vs. No. 20 Coastal Carolina, 2-1 against No. 22 Georgia Tech.

15 of our 21 losses to teams that have been in the top 25 (ECU was not ranked when we lost to them, but they have been in the poll and just dropped out this week) ... we've also won seven of our last eight games.

Will that get us our first NCAA Tournament bid since 1961 (when Duke reached the College World Series)? I don't know -- we've been screwed at least twice before in recent years.

I do know that to even have a chance, we'll have to finish strong -- and that means winning the series in Pittsburgh this weekend (the weather forecast is not good) and doing well in the ACC Tournament. It's possible, but we are a clear bubble team at the moment.

With an RPI at 27, everyone is predicting that we are in right now. We HAVE to get to the ACC tournament, obviously, which means that this weekend is huge. If we win 2 this weekend, we can go one and out at the ACC tourney and still make a regional. When we got screwed two years ago, our RPI was in the 60s or 70s even with our winning ACC record. With our wins against top teams this year, we have nothing to worry about if we can make the ACC tournament. If we don't, then obviously we are out and will have to wait until next year.
The incoming freshman class is LOADED assuming we don't lose them to the draft.

[tbyers11]

Duke beats Pitt 2-1 in 10 innings to take the first game of the series.

Trailed 1-0 going into the 9th. Back-to-back 2 out singles to plate the leadoff hitter who had walked.

Another 2 out RBI single to take the lead in the 10th.

Big win for ACC and NCAA hopes!

[chrishoke]

Huge win for the Devils tonight at Pitt 2-1 in 10. Duke was trailing 1-0 in the 9th and down to their last out when they scored to tie it.

[chrishoke]

BC, WF, and Notre Dame all lose. Heels lopsing to the Pack 6-2 in the 8th. Great night.