Chris Pollard pleased with Duke’s showing thus far in must-win game

Duke has gotten out to an early lead in their winner-take-all regional finale in Conway, South Carolina as they lead Coastal Carolina 6-0 in the fourth inning. The Blue Devils have leaned on some explosive hitting and superb pitching from right-hander Alex Gow. And during the game, Duke head coach Chris Pollard revealed the game plan for Gow on the mound moving forward.

“Well our plan most of the year has been two times through the lineup and when that lineup turns over a third time you’ll see somebody else, and I think we’ll probably stick to that,” Pollard said. “Although I will say, I think his stuff right now is as good as it’s been all year.”

Gow hasn’t allowed a single run through four innings and didn’t allow his first hit of the ball game until the fourth inning. He’s already struck out seven batters on the day, and got out of a tough jam to end the fourth inning with two runners on base and no outs.

Gow has been dealing, and it will be interesting to see how much longer he’ll remain in Duke’s must-win game. But if the Blue Devils’ offense keeps cooking the way they are at the moment, it may not matter who’s on the mound.

MJ Metz got things going with a solo home run in the second inning, launching his fourth home run of the regionals and his 17th of the season, tying the team lead. Catcher Alex Stone kept the home run party going the next inning, as he blasted a three-run home run to left center to help further extend the Duke lead.

The sight of the Blue Devils lineup sending shots over the outfield wall is exactly what Pollard wanted to see in this matchup, as his team is executing his game plan to a tee in the batter’s box.

“Well you know we just wanted to be aggressive, I told our guys in our pregame we want to be aggressive in everything we do. We’re going to play fearless today,” Pollard said. “Our M.O. for scoring runs this year has been hit the ball out of the ballpark and we’ve gotten some balls elevated. I thought we had some really good two-strike at bats, and that at bat there by (Alex) Stone with two outs, that was huge.”

Duke hit three home runs in their last matchup with Coastal Carolina, which resulted in a loss. But their powerful bats paired with excellent defense and pitching could be the recipe that sends them the Super regionals.

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