It’s been said that there’s no such thing as a bad day at the ballpark.
Maybe. But it helps if your team can score some runs.
Duke didn’t score enough runs this past weekend in Oklahoma, not the baseball team and certainly not the softball team. Duke played a combined five games and posted one win, that over a team that ended its season 27-32-1.
Softball got run-ruled by Oklahoma 9-1 in six innings. Alabama then beat Duke 2-1 in the elimination bracket. Two runs in 13 innings isn’t going to win many games.
Duke players interviewed after the Alabama game said that the goal for the season was to make it to Oklahoma City. Mission accomplished. Walk before you run.
Finishing first in the ACC regular season, winning the ACC Tournament, hosting and winning a regional, a super regional win, an appearance in the CWS. Duke loses a lot but they’re on the map and we’ll see if Marissa Young and her staff can leverage that and take the next step.
Baseball? Look, I lived through the Bill Hillier era, a six-year ACC mark of 34 wins and 114 losses.
So, I do not take NCAA appearances for granted.
But this was a big letdown after last week’s high. The Duke offense that mauled ACC pitching for 43 runs in four games could muster a solitary run against Connecticut, three against Oklahoma. Even that 6-1 win over Oral Roberts doesn’t look all that impressive when you consider that Oklahoma beat the same team 14-0 the day before.
An ACC Tournament title deserves a celebration and a banner and maybe the renovation of historic Jack Coombs Field will enable Duke to finally kick down the door to Omaha.
Not all that long ago one could look at the end of a season, know who was leaving, who was coming back, who was coming in as freshmen and take a stab at the next season.
Not anymore. Duke softball has used the transfer portal judiciously but it has used it. Star pitcher Jala Wright started her career at Michigan State, for example.
But Pollard’s team had no fewer than nine transfers entering this season and most of them will not be at Duke next season. Say goodbye to Ben Miller and Zac Morris and Logan Bravo and Charlie Bielenson and Alex Stone and, well, you get the drift.
And there’s no guarantee the players with eligibility remaining will be back either. NIL is a thing in baseball and SEC schools have deep pockets.
Then again, Pollard knows his way around the portal, especially Ivy League guys who can play at this level but prioritize a Duke MBA.
Transfer portal, NIL, stadium renovations, conference realignment. Lots of moving parts and Duke baseball doesn’t kick down that door if Pollard doesn’t get it right.
If he does? Well, as they used to say in Brooklyn, wait till next year.
Working the portal hard is the world we live in.
I agree the team’s performance in Oklahoma was a letdown but overall it was an enjoyable baseball season. The grandson and I made it out to Coombs twice plus we watched lots of games on the computer. Hopefully, Coach Pollard works the portal hard.