Georgia is 30-4 at home, but Duke has a message for the Diamond Dawgs’ fans: Bring it on.
“I hope it’s rowdy and I hope it’s raucous, our guys thrive off of that,” Blue Devils coach Chris Pollard said. “We call it white noise when you can get in these environments where it’s really loud, it allows us to re-center and refocus on what we do.
“Our guys thrive in this situation.”
All-ACC star Ben Miller leads Duke with 19 home runs along with a .322 batting average and looks to be a tough out batting in the No. 3 spot in the lineup.
The No. 7 nationally seeded Bulldogs (43-15) play the Blue Devils (38-19) in a 6:06 p.m. winners’ bracket game (ESPN+) at Foley Field in this NCAA baseball tournament regional today.
It’s reasonable to think Pollard might just be trying to give his players confidence after the offensive display Georgia put on Friday, beating Binghamton 20-4 in the early Friday game.
The Blue Devils watched the Bulldogs hit five home runs and take batting practice with 15 hits before they sent Oklahoma State to the losers’ bracket with a 12-5 victory late Friday night.
It’s worth noting the Cowboys hit four home runs against Duke. Georgia leads the nation with 138 HRs this season, 96 of them at 3,630-capacity Foley Field.
The Bearcats and Cowboys play an elimination game at 12:06 p.m. in Athens today, with the winner of that game advancing to play the loser of the UGA-Duke game in an elimination match at noon Sunday.
The Blue Devils’ confidence seems out of place at first glance, considering Duke didn’t play an SEC team this season, much less beat one.
But the Blue Devils took two of three games at Clemson’s Doug Kingsmore Stadium earlier this season, handing the Tigers their only ACC home series loss of the season.
Georgia couldn’t even manage to score a run at Clemson in April, losing 3-0.
Duke, meanwhile, scored 30 runs in three games against the Tigers, losing the opener 9-7 before winning 15-0 and 8-4, inflating the team’s confidence that it can play well in a hostile road environment.
UGA coach Wes Johnson hedged on naming his starting pitcher until today and will throw Bulldogs’ staff ace Brian Curley (4-3, 3.21 ERA).
Pollard confidently trumpeted that Kyle Johnson (3-3, 6.75) would be his starter, based on a scrimmage the team had after being eliminated by Florida State last week in the ACC tourney.
“We like Kyle in this environment tomorrow night,” Pollard said. “I think it’s going to be fun.”
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