No. 23 Duke Hosts Appalachian State Tuesday

Tuesday, February 22

Durham, N.C.

4:00 P.M.

Duke University

Appalachian State

Tickets

No. 23 Duke Hosts Appalachian State Tuesday

2/21/2022 5:07:00 PM | Baseball

LIVE STATS VARSITY APP (RADIO)GAME NOTES GAMEDAY INFORMATION

DURHAM – After winning its opening weekend series, Duke returns to action on Tuesday as it hosts Appalachian State at 4 p.m. at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

LEADING OFF
No. 23 Duke (2-1) hosts the first midweek game of the 2022 season on Tuesday as it welcomes Appalachian State to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. Duke leads the all-time series 4-3, but the two teams have not faced each other since 2012. The Blue Devils seek their first win over the Mountaineers since 1997. Head coach Chris Pollard, entering his 10th season at Duke, was the head coach at App State for eight seasons prior to joining the Blue Devils. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra. Chris Edwards will also broadcast the contest via radio on the Varsity App or GoDuke.com. Following the game, Duke will shift its gaze to its three-game series at Baylor the coming weekend.

HOW TO FOLLOW
Tuesday, 4 p.m. – Varsity App (radio) – Live Stats

PITCHING MATCHUP
DU – Aaron Beasley (0-1, 6.38 ERA)
APP – Cameron Kepley (0-7, 7.77 ERA)

SEIDL'S STELLAR SEASON DEBUT
Junior right-hander Billy Seidl was electric out of the bullpen for Duke on opening weekend. The Wellesley, Mass., native struck out a career-high six batters in a career-high four innings pitched without allowing a hit.

DLUX
Entering the season a career 3-for-27 hitter, senior Damon Lux earned the starting job in center field and has shown why he was tasked with the role. Lux led the team over the weekend with five RBIs on Saturday, doing a bit of everything with two sacrifice flies, a single and a three-run home run.

WELCOME TO K-VILLE
The Blue Devil pitching staff has ascended to new heights over the past four seasons, shattering the school's single-season strikeout record in 2018 and 2019. Last season, Duke continued to strike out batters at record rates, fanning 527 batters in just 483.2 innings pitched. Now sophomore Luke Fox led the team with 76 strikeouts in 56.0 innings pitched last season.

Duke season strikeout totals (Team records)
Rank     K/9        Strikeouts           Season
1.           9.82       527        2021
2.           9.72       598        2019
3.           9.12       575        2018
              11.51    183        2020*
*Season cut short due to COVID-19 pandemic

EXPERIENCE IN THE PEN
While the Blue Devils offense will feature a lot of new faces, Duke's pitching staff remained largely intact and added multiple quality arms to bolster the staff. Duke returns over 75 percent of multiple pitching statistics for the 2022 season.

Duke pitching returning
Category                           Returning           Total     Percent
Innings Pitched               102.2                  483.2    78.8 %
Strikeouts                         417                      527        79.1 %
Wins                                 28                        33          84.8 %

YOUTH ON DECK
The Blue Devils will feature a lot of new faces in the offensive lineup in 2022. Duke lost five of its eight starters in the field and its designated hitter. The Blue Devils will return less than half of its offensive production in multiple categories.

Duke OFFENSIVE PRODUCTION LOST
Category             Returning           Total     Percent
At-Bats               731                      1912      38.2 %
Hits                     198                      545        36.3 %
RBIs                     131                      315        41.6 %
Runs Scored       132                      397        38.3 %

HIGHLY-TOUTED NEWCOMER CLASS
Duke's newcomer class of 12 freshmen and four graduate transfers were tabbed ninth by Baseball America, the highest ranked class in program history. Freshmen Alex Mooney, Jonathan Santucci and Devin Obee, who each rank in the top-50 freshmen nationally per Perfect Game. The Blue Devils were the lone school in the rankings with two players in the top 10 and three players in the top 50.

UNUSUAL PATH TO DUKE
Graduate student Caleb McRoy joined the Blue Devils in January and had an unusual path to the Duke roster. No stranger to Durham, McRoy was a member of the North Carolina Central baseball program, but found himself looking for a new home after the school announced it would be discontinuing the program after the 2021 season. McRoy, a native of Raleigh, N.C., joined Duke, who he had faced four times in his career. Against the Blue Devils, McRoy allowed just one run on three hits and one walk while striking out 11 in seven innings of work.

K'S 4 KIDS CANCER
Duke has partnered with the Duke Children's Hospital for the fourth consecutive season in the K's 4 Kids' Cancer campaign. Donors can pledge an amount of money to donate per strikeout that the Blue Devils pitching staff throws in 2022. So far, the partnership has contributed over $30,000 in support of the Duke Children's Hospital. Over the past four seasons, Duke has amassed nearly 1,900 strikeouts.

ALL-AMERICA HONORS FOR DUKE DUO
Junior right-handed pitcher Marcus Johnson and senior outfielder RJ Schreck each earned preseason All-America honors heading into the 2022 season. Johnson was named to the Perfect Game Second Team and D1Baseball Third Team. Johnson, a native of Fontana, Calif., was stellar out of the bullpen for the Blue Devils in 2021 and is expected to make his first collegiate start on opening day in 2022. He ranked tied for third in the ACC with a 3.05 ERA and tallied a team-leading five wins. Schreck earned Third Team honors from Collegiate Baseball. Schreck jumped onto the scene for Duke and will be the programs lone returning outfielder in 2022. He boasted a .337 batting average with a staggering 18 home runs and 52 RBIs. His 18 home runs ranked fourth all-time by a Blue Devil in a single season.

O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
Graduate students Chris Crabtree, Chris Davis and Wil Hoyle and junior Marcus Johnson will serve as captains for the 2022 Duke baseball season. In addition to the four captains, each class elected a representative for the teams leadership council in freshman Andrew Yu, sophomore Luke Fox, Johnson and senior RJ Schreck. Head coach Chris Pollard and the coaching staff appointed three positions – Duke Student-Athlete Advisory Council members Hoyle and junior Grant Norris and time management liaison junior Graham Pauley.

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