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Should be a good series.  Duke was picked to finish 5th in the ACC preseason poll (Stanford was picked to be 8th).  Duke was ranked 11th nationally in preseason, fell to 17th early & has since dropped out of the top 25.  Stanford entered the top 25 at #18 after going 2-1 at UNC.  Duke is 12-6, 2-1 in the ACC (losing to Cal 14-1, then winning 6-2 & 7-3), and 0-1 in their only road game.

Just looking at stats, it seems that Duke's starting pitching has struggled.  Based on the series vs. Cal, their Friday guy is Kyle Johnson, who plays OF when not on the mound.  In 4 starts, he is 1-3, with an ERA of 9.98 in 15.1 innings.  Behind him, they have Ryan Higgins (4 starts, 1-0, 5.40 in 13.1 innings) & Andrew Healy (4 starts, 1-1, 7.27 in only 8.2 innings).  But they appear to have a deep bullpen, including 4 guys with great looking ERAs & WHIPs - Ryan Calvert, Reid Easterly, Gabe Nard, & Owen Proksch.

Duke's roster looks like some of the ACC basketball teams - filled with transfers, many of them seniors & grad students.  I've not noticed this before in baseball, where a lot of the best players are drafted after 3 years.  Calvert (UNC Wilmington) & Easterly (Yale) are both grad transfers.  Five of their top 8 hitters are transfers - Wallace Clark (a senior from Oklahoma who started at 3B as a freshman in the CWS) and grad transfers Ben Miller (from Penn - 2nd in the nation with 10 HRs & has an old-time baseball handlebar mustache!), Jake Berger & Ben Rounds (both from Harvard), & Jake Hyde from Georgetown.

Stanford outhits Duke per batting average .309-.273.  But Duke's on base percentage is .427 vs. .395 for Stanford.  Duke has drawn 132 bases on balls and been hit 32 times - 9 free passes per game!  Clark, their leadoff hitter has 17 walks & 9 HBPs himself.  And Duke slugs .517 vs. .509 for Stanford.

[skip75]

Should be a good series.  Duke was picked to finish 5th in the ACC preseason poll (Stanford was picked to be 8th).  Duke was ranked 11th nationally in preseason, fell to 17th early & has since dropped out of the top 25.  Stanford entered the top 25 at #18 after going 2-1 at UNC.  Duke is 12-6, 2-1 in the ACC (losing to Cal 14-1, then winning 6-2 & 7-3), and 0-1 in their only road game.

Just looking at stats, it seems that Duke's starting pitching has struggled.  Based on the series vs. Cal, their Friday guy is Kyle Johnson, who plays OF when not on the mound.  In 4 starts, he is 1-3, with an ERA of 9.98 in 15.1 innings.  Behind him, they have Ryan Higgins (4 starts, 1-0, 5.40 in 13.1 innings) & Andrew Healy (4 starts, 1-1, 7.27 in only 8.2 innings).  But they appear to have a deep bullpen, including 4 guys with great looking ERAs & WHIPs - Ryan Calvert, Reid Easterly, Gabe Nard, & Owen Proksch.

Duke's roster looks like some of the ACC basketball teams - filled with transfers, many of them seniors & grad students.  I've not noticed this before in baseball, where a lot of the best players are drafted after 3 years.  Calvert (UNC Wilmington) & Easterly (Yale) are both grad transfers.  Five of their top 8 hitters are transfers - Wallace Clark (a senior from Oklahoma who started at 3B as a freshman in the CWS) and grad transfers Ben Miller (from Penn - 2nd in the nation with 10 HRs & has an old-time baseball handlebar mustache!), Jake Berger & Ben Rounds (both from Harvard), & Jake Hyde from Georgetown.

Stanford outhits Duke per batting average .309-.273.  But Duke's on base percentage is .427 vs. .395 for Stanford.  Duke has drawn 132 bases on balls and been hit 32 times - 9 free passes per game!  Clark, their leadoff hitter has 17 walks & 9 HBPs himself.  And Duke slugs .517 vs. .509 for Stanford.