Off The Bat: Duke Wins First ACC Tournament Title, McNeese Proves Resilience

Duke Wins First ACC Tournament Title

As the ball soared toward Duke right fielder Chase Cheek for the final out of the ACC Tournament championship game, his teammates climbed over the first base dugout railing, tracking the ball into his glove. When it settled and the Blue Devils had secured a 1-0 victory against North Carolina State and the championship, they rushed to the dogpile forming in front of the pitcher’s mound, piling on catcher Michael Rothenberg and closer Marcus Johnson.

For Duke, it was a moment that will be etched in program history. The Blue Devils had never won the ACC Tournament in the 46-year history of the event. They last won the ACC title in 1961, more than a decade before the creation of the tournament.

This year’s tournament triumph is the latest sign that Duke is a resurgent program under Chris Pollard, who is in his ninth season as head coach. First, the Blue Devils in 2016 snapped a 45-year NCAA Tournament drought. Then, in 2018 and 2019, they won regionals, falling one win shy of a College World Series appearance in both years. In 2020, Duke was off to a strong, 12-4 start and had climbed into the top 10 of the Top 25 when the season was canceled.

Now, Duke (32-20) is the ACC Tournament champion and will carry plenty of momentum into regionals, as it has won 12 straight games.

“Life’s pretty good right now,” Duke captain Joey Loperfido said. “Proud of these guys and we did talk about this. I said we were going to be a dangerous team coming into this tournament and we won the (dang) thing.”

Loperfido did his part during the tournament in Charlotte, going 7-for-18 with two home runs to earn MVP honors. Hoisting the trophy was a special moment for the fourth-year outfielder who opted to return to school after last year’s canceled season. Loperfido has been Duke’s leading hitter all season long (.363/.465/.591, 7 HR, 11 SB) and he stepped up again on the big stage.

At least as impressive was the way Duke pitched all week in Charlotte, which can play like a band box at times. The Blue Devils pitchers were in control throughout the tournament, however, holding their opponents to five runs in four games.

It started Wednesday in a 12-1 victory against Florida State when four Duke pitchers combined to hold the Seminoles to four hits and a walk. Righthander Jack Carey followed the next day with a quality start in a 3-2 victory against Miami. Lefthander Luke Fox, a freshman, delivered another quality start Saturday in the semifinals in a 4-2 victory against Virginia. Sunday, in the championship game, righthander Cooper Stinson threw six scoreless innings and righthander Jimmy Loper and Johnson finished the shutout with three scoreless innings of relief. During the tournament, Duke’s bullpen did not allow a run in 13.2 innings.

Like the rest of the team, the Duke pitching staff has come on strong in May. It was expected to be a strength of the team coming into the season, but it took some time to round into form, in part because just a couple weeks before the start of the season pitching coach Dusty Blake was hired away to become the pitching strategist for the St. Louis Cardinals. Pollard promoted Chris Gordon to pitching coach and while he had been a part of the program for three seasons and previously had been a pitching coach at East Tennessee State, there was still a natural adjustment period.

After this week’s performance, however, it’s clear the Blue Devils have found their stride.

“I can’t say enough about the job by Chris Gordon, our pitching coach,” Pollard said. “Taking over really an impossible spot just a few weeks before the season started, having so much inexperience in the bullpen, and then we hit a wall there in April where we were struggling. And it’s easy at that point for everybody to start questioning everybody, right.

“He found a way to work our guys through that to get to the other side of it, and man, I think we’ve pitched as well in the month of May as anybody in the country, and he deserves an enormous amount of credit for that.”

Duke was so efficient on the mound in Charlotte that Pollard said that despite playing four games this week the team will have to get some pitchers simulated game action in practice Tuesday to keep them sharp for regionals.

Regionals has a nice ring to it for the Blue Devils. A few weeks ago, a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance—a first in program history—appeared unlikely. Duke was 20-20 overall and 10-17 in ACC play. It was coming off back-to-back series losses to Virginia and Louisville.

With just eight games left in the regular season, Duke was running out of time to get on track. But the Blue Devils on May 11 beat Wofford, 9-6, and then swept a series against Virginia Tech, outscoring the Hokies 17-8 on the weekend. They continued their run the following week with a rout at Davidson and then a sweep at Clemson, outscoring the Tigers, 23-11.

By the time the ACC Tournament began, Duke had played its way to the NCAA Tournament bubble. It rode that momentum to an unforgettable week in Charlotte.

From the outside, it might appear as though the Blue Devils flipped a switch and accessed their untapped potential. But Loperfido said it was a more gradual build—and it’s not over yet.

“It’s just the belief, the inner belief that we had amongst ourselves as a team and the belief from the coaches all along that eventually if we kept grinding, things would work out for us,” Loperfido said. “We’ve bought in; and this is the beginning. We’re still making a run. We still have the NCAA Tournament to play.”

Between Duke’s momentum and its recent history of strong play in the NCAA Tournament, continuing this hot streak into regionals wouldn’t come as a surprise at all. The Blue Devils have come a long way as a program and after their latest triumph may be ready to take another step forward this June.

After Trying Year, McNeese Wins Southland Conference Tournament

As McNeese State on Saturday night celebrated its 2-1 victory against Sam Houston State in the Southland Conference Tournament championship game, the dogpile formed just to the first base side of the mound. After a tense game and an emotional season, the Cowboys let loose under the flashing LED lights at Alumni Field in Hammond, La.

As the Cowboys streamed out of the third base dugout to the dogpile, coach Justin Hill followed. And soon, he was leaping atop the pile himself.

“I’ve never done that in my life,” he said. “I had no idea where I was at. It was such a great emotion.”

Hill’s revelry Saturday night is understandable when you consider all that McNeese went through over the last year.

The Cowboys first met as a team a little more than 10 months ago, reconvening for the first time in mid August after the 2020 season was canceled. There were 45 players on the Cowboys’ roster, many of whom had been a part of their 2019 regional team and had jumped at the chance to play one more season of college baseball. They had the talent in place for a special season.

On that day, Hill talked to the team about the challenges the pandemic would throw at the team. There would be testing, masks and more. Adapting to those new protocols would be critical for a successful season.

Soon, however, a new disaster was facing McNeese. Hurricane Laura 10 days later hit Lake Charles, La., with winds of 150 mph battering campus. Joe Miller Ballpark took heavy damage, as did the weight room and coaches’ offices and so much else around Lake Charles.

The city was still recovering six weeks later when Hurricane Delta came ashore. It wasn’t as big as Laura, but two hurricanes hitting the city in less than two months packed a considerable punch.

The Cowboys didn’t come together as a team again until November. They played a condensed fall practice schedule, jamming in 15 practice days at a local high school. After winter break, the Cowboys reconvened for preseason practice—still using local high school fields. They would use seven different fields before they could return to The Jeaux on Feb. 1.

A couple weeks later, Lake Charles was again caught in the middle of a bad storm—this time the winter storm that ripped through the Southeast the week before Opening Day. The ice storm kept the Cowboys off the field all week leading up to Opening Day and caused more damage—Hill had three broken pipes at his house.

Lake Charles was hit by another storm just two weeks ago when more than 12 inches of rain fell, causing a historic flood. For a city still recovering from last fall’s hurricanes, it was another blow.

The city is still working its way back. It hasn’t received a federal disaster relief package to help with the long-term recovery of the region. With so much happening over the last year, the destruction in Southwest Louisiana has fallen through the cracks.

While things off the field have been challenging to say the least, the Cowboys have never quit. The results weren’t always what they wanted and there were some understandably difficult stretches. But they stuck with it, got into the Southland Tournament with the fourth-most wins in the conference and then swept through the field to win their second straight title.

“As baseball guys we’re creatures of habit, the rhythm of game and having success,” Hill said. “We struggled to have that through no fault of the guys’ own. They kept going, kept fighting, kept showing up.”

McNeese (31-28) was able to be as resilient as it was because of the experience and talent on the roster. The Cowboys have 20 players in their fourth or fifth season of college baseball, including seven regulars in the lineup.

McNeese kept bouncing back and finding a way, no matter what got thrown at it. Hill said the Cowboys are a close-knit group and those bonds helped them on the field.

“I really don’t know if we could have won what we did, I don’t know what it would have been like to go through this without this group,” Hill said. “It took us all.”

The Cowboys aren’t done yet. With lefthander Will Dion (9-4, 2.81), the Southland pitcher of the year, leading the rotation and outfielder Clayton Rasbeary (.350/.408/.608, 11 HR) anchoring the lineup, McNeese will be a difficult matchup in a regional.

There’s also nothing that any team can throw at the Cowboys that they haven’t been through already. They’ve faced SEC teams and elite pitchers. They’ve had to bounce back from close losses and disappointing weekends. They had to play a weekend without Hill, who missed a series due to Covid.

Through it all, the Cowboys keep bouncing back. It’s that resilience that makes them special.

“I knew when they kept coming back, kept getting off the mat after getting knocked down,” Hill said. “They kept getting a little tougher every time. We’re even tougher than we are talented, I can tell you that right now.”

Now, that toughness and talent has combined to make McNeese the Southland Tournament champions. The ride isn’t over yet, either. The Cowboys can’t be overlooked in the NCAA Tournament.

But no matter what happens now, they are champions. Hill said he’s never cared much about championship rings, but this year he really wanted McNeese to win one so the team would have a reward for this year.

“If there was ever anything I wanted, I wanted them to have something tangible to remember this year by,” he said. “Their toughness, resilience, loyalty—I wanted them to have something tangible for that.

“We’re going to get a ring. I don’t know what all will be on it, but we’ll have something tangible for that team to have.”

Eight For Omaha

Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Christian, Vanderbilt

I’ve made one change to the field from last week, exchanging Texas Tech for TCU. The Horned Frogs did not look good for three weeks and I still have my questions about them, but they did seem to get on track with a strong week in Oklahoma City on their way to the Big 12 Tournament title. Most importantly, TCU should receive a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament, which gives it home-field advantage in regionals and super regionals. TCU has lost a home regional or super regional just once during coach Jim Schlossnagle’s tenure.

I still like Texas Tech plenty and Tim Tadlock has proven time and again that the Red Raiders can never be counted out. But Tech probably won’t be a top-eight seed and that likely means it will have to go on the road for super regionals. That’s enough for me to make the change.

Weekend Standouts

Arkansas: The Razorbacks on Sunday defeated Tennessee in the SEC Tournament championship game to win the event for the first time in program history. Arkansas last won a conference tournament in 1985, when it was a member of the Southwest Conference. The Razorbacks also extended their streak of consecutive weeks ranked No. 1 in the Top 25 to 14, the longest such streak since Stanford was No. 1 for the first 15 weeks of the season in 1998.

Old Dominion: The Monarchs swept through the Conference USA Tournament to win a conference tournament for the first time since 1996, when they were members of the Colonial Athletic Association. ODU is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014 and just the third time this century. It likely will do so as a No. 1 seed in a regional, although it will do so on the road because it did not bid to host regionals.

Virginia Commonwealth: The Rams swept through the Atlantic 10 Tournament to extend their winning streak to 21 games. That’s the nation’s second-longest winning streak this season, trailing only Fairfield’s 25-game streak to open the year. VCU is going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015, when it advanced to super regionals.