Duke Baseball Ranked Among Top 10 Best Programs to Join in NCAA
By Chris Brown
USA Today recently named Duke Baseball one of the Top 10 NCAA Division I programs.
USA Today put together a ranking of the best college baseball programs in the country, and Duke University was ranked as the 8th best school for NCAA baseball. The rankings were based on team competitiveness as well as the school’s academic quality and education, a student’s return on investment, and leadership.
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The Duke baseball program has seen major improvements since head coach Chris Pollard took over the team in 2013. In 2014, he led the Blue Devils to a school record-tying 16 conference wins and earned a trip to the ACC Baseball Tournament where only the top 10 teams advance with Duke finishing 4th in the standings. Pollard has also seen 8 former Blue Devils selected in the Major League Baseball draft since arriving.
The university also has an extended partnership with the local minor league Durham Bulls to allow Duke to play their home games at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park downtown and host practices and a team locker room for the next 7 years, which would also help encourage recruits to join the program and give them the chance to play in a professional stadium.
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The next step for Duke Baseball is to become a regular in the ACC Tournament and earn a bid to compete in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament and College World Series. The team has gotten off to a really good start so far this season, currently with an 8-4 record after upsetting 10th ranked California in their season-opening series.
Next the Blue Devils will host Penn State in a match on Wednesday before opening ACC play with a series against Virginia coming up this weekend. The Cavaliers are coming off an appearance in the College World Series Finals where they finished as the runner-ups last season and will be a big test for Duke early this season.