Game 25 | DUKE (18-6, 4-5 ACC) at LIBERTY (14-8, 1-2 Big South)
Lynchburg, Va. | 3 p.m.
Audio | Video | Live Stats
Tuesday's Game
The Blue Devils travel to Lynchburg, Va., for their first midweek road game of the season, taking on Liberty at 3 p.m., at Liberty Baseball Stadium ... Duke was set to play UNC Greensboro in Greensboro, N.C, before the game was postponed due to inclement weather ... Tuesday's contest is the second meeting between Duke and Liberty this season ... The Blue Devils defeated the Flames, 3-2, Mar. 3 at Jack Coombs Field.
Follow the Action
The Blue Devil Network will provide an audio broadcast on GoDuke.com with Chris Edwards calling the action ... Video is available via Liberty's website (www.liberty.edu/flames) ... Liberty will also provide live stats via their official website.
Blue Devil Quick Hits
• Duke is 6-0 in midweek games this season.
• Senior Andy Perez brings a five-game hit streak into Tuesday's contest ... During that span, Perez batted .522 (12-for-23) with two home runs, two doubles, a triple, six runs scored, six RBI and four stolen bases.
• Freshman Justin Bellinger has reached base in a team-leading 11-straight games ... Over the past 11 contests, Bellinger hit .342 (13-for-38), adding 11 RBI as well.
• Of the 121 ACC pitchers to throw 10 or more innings this season, only two -- Duke's Sarkis Ohanian and North Carolina's Jason Morgan -- have not walked a batter ... Ohanian is the only pitcher in the league to loss 15-plus frames without issuing a walk.
Duke vs. Liberty
Duke and Liberty take the field for the 13th meeting in program history … The Flames own a 7-5 advantage in the all-time series … The Blue Devils won the first contest of this season's home-and-home series, 3-2, at Jack Coombs Field ... The win on Mar. 3 extended Duke's win streak to nine games, its longest win streak of the season ... Freshman Mitch Stallings struck out five of the seven batters he faced to earn his second win of the season ... Senior Andy Perez led the offense with a 2-for-3 effort, scoring in the first on an Evan Dougherty sacrifice fly ... After falling behind 2-1, Duke scored two in the bottom of the fifth on a Cris Perez two-run single.
Duke vs. Big South Teams
The Blue Devils are 72-49-1 all-time against teams Currently in the Big South Conference: Campbell (17-14), Charleston Southern (3-0), Coastal Carolina (1-0), Gardner-Webb (5-0), High Point (12-14), Liberty (5-7), Longwood (8-2-1), Presbyterian (5-2), Radford (9-5), UNC Asheville (3-2) and Winthrop (4-3) ... In addition to a home-and-home series against Liberty this season, Duke is also set to face Longwood May 12 in Durham.
Pitching Prowess
The Blue Devils currently lead the ACC with a 2.64 team ERA ... Duke and Louisville are the only two ACC teams to post an ERA under 2.80 this season ... Duke is one of 27 Division I teams to post an ERA under 2.70 this season ... Duke's top six pitchers in terms of innings thrown -- Michael Matuella, Andrew Istler, Bailey Clark, Kenny Koplove, Sarkis Ohanian, Mitch Stallings -- have combined for a 1.93 ERA (31 ER, 144.1 IP), 163 strikeouts and 46 walks ... Those six Blue Devils have also done well to minimize walks, registering a combined 4.53 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Devilish Defense
Duke ranks third in the ACC with a .972 fielding percentage through 21 games ... The Blue Devils have committed multiple errors in a game just seven times this season and have played six games without a defensive miscue ... Defense has become a hallmark of the program ... Over the past eight seasons, Duke has posted a fielding percentage under .970 just once (.967 in 2012).
Perez on the Base Paths
Senior Andy Perez has been one of the most prolific base stealers in school history ... He enters the weekend with 66 career stolen bases, good for fourth in program history ... Perez leads the nation with 22 stolen bases this season ... He is the only player in the country to swipe over 20 bases this season ... The next closest ACC players, Miami's Ricky Eusebio and Pitt's Jacob Wright, have each stolen 10 bases this season ... Perez stole a career-high four bases in Duke's win over Rider Mar. 1 ... He has stolen at least one base in 15 games this season, including five games with multiple stolen bases.
Youth Movement
A veteran team in 2014, Duke relies heavily on its bevy of talented underclassmen this season ... The Blue Devil roster features 14 freshmen ... Duke regularly starts four freshmen in the field in Justin Bellinger, Evan Dougherty, Jack Labosky and Peter Zyla ... In addition, rookies Max Miller and Michael Smiciklas have seen action in 18 and 15 games, respectively ... The eight freshmen to record an at bat this season have combined for a .253 average, and 46 RBI ... In addition, six freshmen have pitched three or more innings, including redshirt freshman James Ziemba ... Duke's freshmen pitchers have combined to allow 10 earned runs over 52.2 innings of work, good for a 1.71 ERA.
#GoDuke
