“Road Dogs.”
I confess I didn’t have that term in my dictionary until recently, when I asked Duke catcher Alex Stone about this week’s Super Regional match at the University of Virginia, a best-of-three series that most so-called experts see Virginia winning.
Stone told the media that his team had come up with that term to describe their glee in sending the home team away in disappointment.
“We love being on the road. I think we play better on the road. We have high energy. We love the crowds. We love it.”
The record shows this is more than just bravado. Duke has gone on the road this season and won two-of-three against Clemson, Virginia and Boston College. The first two were seeded fourth and seventh nationally in this season’s NCAA Tournament, while BC just missed a top-16 seed. Duke also went on the road and won against Campbell and Liberty.
And of course, last weekend Duke went into Conway, South Carolina and came away with a regional title over heavily-favored home team Coastal Carolina.
Duke head coach Chris Pollard added a different perspective on road dogs.
“I think a lot of is because these guys really like to spend time together and when you're on the road it forces more time together, and so it's bus rides, it's team meals, it's hanging out in the lobby. And these guys genuinely enjoy that. They like spending time with one another and, and so I think we've been looser on the road and they've kind of like, really embraced this persona of being a great road team. They call themselves road dogs, and that's just been kind of adopted into the culture of this season.”
Duke is going to need to be road dogs this weekend. The seventh-seeded Cavaliers won their regional without a loss, enabling them to wrap up Sunday, one day earlier than Duke, which enables them to rest their tired arms and in mid-June, they are all tired arms. Virginia was 19-11 in the ACC, Duke 16-13. Virginia catcher Kyle Teel was ACC Player of the year and he was joined as first-team All-ACC by third baseman Jake Gelof, outfielder Ethan O’Donnell and shortstop Griff O’Ferrall. Staff ace Connelly Early is 11-2. They’re in the top-two in ACC batting average, runs scored and earned run average and they do it without hitting a lot of home runs. MLB scouts know the way to Disharoon Park, known affectionally as “The Dish.”
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