Spring sport spotlight: Duke baseball finds improved bullpen consistency

With spring sports activities totally underway, the Blue Zone is highlighting totally different squads and their accomplishments. This week, we check out modifications in Duke baseball’s bullpen:

Flashback to the 2024 ACC Event in Charlotte, the place Duke baseball, for the second time in program historical past, took home the championship after dominating Florida State 16-4. With a five-run sixth inning, two grand slams and one other house run, the Blue Devils had been electrical. Nevertheless, when the season ended, key pitchers Charlie Beilenson and Jonathan Santucci ended their time with this system. The ageing workforce was going to need to make some changes because it started getting ready for the 2025 season. 

After falling to then-No. 18 Stanford in a series sweep final weekend, vitality was low because the Blue Devils made their cross-country return house to Durham. However Duke was on a mission to show its efficiency on Klein Subject at Sunken Diamond was not going to be a sample, and it did simply that in its midweek domination of UConn. Stepping off Jack Coombs Subject with a 12-2 victory and two homers, it had the looks of a complete new workforce. 

To safe this win, the Blue Devils needed to fully change the sport they performed. Some of the essential modifications was their utilization of the bullpen. Mark Hindy, pitching for a part of the primary inning and persevering with by means of the second, slowed down UConn offenses. However extra may very well be completed to stifle the Huskies. So within the prime of third, Henry Zatkowski stepped out of the bullpen and as much as the mound. This freshman earned the win in reduction for Duke with three no-hit innings and 4 punchouts, permitting the Blue Devils to place distance on the scoreboard. 

Zatkowski, a star within the recreation towards UConn, made his first collegiate look on the mound on Feb. 26 at Jack Coombs Subject, when then-No. 17 Duke fell to Liberty 12-4. With main cracks of their defenses, the Blue Devils gave the Flames optimum house to slide by means of. A superb pitch in baseball could make the distinction between one run and a number of. On this case, it was a significant purpose the Blue Devils left the sector in defeat. The freshman struggled to seek out his footing and ended after pitching two innings, permitting 5 runs on 5 hits. 

This distinction reveals how the bullpen, though very simply missed, is essential to a robust protection. In Duke’s recreation towards UConn, a well-managed bullpen led to the win. Whereas within the Blue Devils’ recreation towards Liberty, it led to their defeat. 

As Duke travels to Charlottesville, Va., to face No. 23 Virginia this weekend, the main target stays on how the Blue Devils will handle their inconsistencies this spring — not simply in managing the bullpen or studying the sector, however within the unforced errors that resulted in a four-run inning from what ought to’ve solely been one towards Stanford.