Making Their Pitch

Good pitching beats good hitting. You’ve heard that one, right?

Duke baseball pitching coach Brady Kirkpatrick has some thoughts.

“I’m a huge proponent of the cliche that good pitching beats good hitting. Hitters are always at a disadvantage when they step into the box.”

You can never have too much pitching. You’ve also heard that one.

Kirkpatrick again: “We’re lucky enough that we have a lot of returnees from last year, a lot of experience. We definitely have some depth.”

Now, some context. Duke expected Luke Fox and Jonathan Santucci to anchor their 2023 starting rotation. But Fox was lost to an arm injury in the fall of 2022, missed the entire season and elected to go pro last spring. Santucci, meanwhile, suffered an elbow injury in March and didn’t pitch again.

Duke responded by asking most of its starters to only go a couple of innings before going to a freshman dominated bullpen. Fran Oschell III and James Tallon anchored that bullpen and both made a number of All-America teams.

Duke advanced to the Super Regional for the third time in the last five tournaments, winning the first game at Virginia. But the Cavaliers mauled Duke’s exhausted pitching staff, winning the final two games 14-4 and 12-2.

Head coach Chris Pollard said this spring that the bulllpen-heavy strategy “brought us a lot of success but ultimately it put a lot of stress on our bullpen down the stretch. The workload caught up with them.”

Flash forward to spring 2024. Santucci is healthy and pitching better than ever, almost all of last season’s pitchers are back and Duke has a number of talented newcomers — from the portal, the injured list and a talented freshman class.

It starts with Santucci, a junior lefthander, a preseason All-America and presumptive first-round draft pick.

“He’s one of the best athletes, one of the best arms, I’ve ever been around,” Kirkpatrick says. “He’s a special talent, a special competitor. His best baseball is ahead of him. He had a taste last year and he’s ready to go.”

Santucci didn’t have Tommy John surgery. Instead he had a screw inserted at the tip of the elbow to better enable the bone to fuse back together.

Santucci says he “had a really productive fall. I feel better than ever.”

But there is something different about his game. He’s given up trying to be a two-way player.

“It was time to focus on one or the other and my future is on the mound.”

Kirkpatrick can already see the benefits. “He’s becoming a complete pitcher. He’s learning how to go deep into games. It’s a huge transition for him, just being able to dive into everything involved in being a pitcher.”

Andrew Healy was the closest thing Duke had to a traditional starter after Santucci went down and he pitched well enough to be named national pitcher of the month for April and first-team freshman All-America by multiple outlets. Now a sophomore, the 6-6 lefty projects to be a mainstay of the rotation after going 5-1, with a 2.32 earned run average.

Oschell is a physically imposing 6-7 fastball-dominant pitcher. His earned run average last season as a sophomore was a microscopic 0.69. He spent the summer pitching for the collegiate national team and Kirkpatrick says the experience made Oschell even better.

“Any time guys get experiences like that, being able to pitch at such a high level, can help you. See how guys go about their business day in and day out.”

Oschell calls the experience “awesome” and says he’s working on incorporating more secondary pitches to mix with his fastball.

He might need them. Pollard and Kirkpatrick are open to moving Oschell into the starting rotation, which means he would be going through the lineup a second, perhaps third time.

Tallon was Duke’s closer last season, with 12 saves and a 1.64 earned run average. 

Oschell and Tallon joined Santucci on numerous 2024 preseason All-America teams.

Tallon projects to stay in the bullpen, where he will be joined by some combination of experienced arms. 

Charlie Beilenson came to Duke from Brown and set a school record with 39 appearances in a season. 

Kirkpatrick says Beilenson was the “unsung hero on our team last year. He held our team together. He was Mr. Reliable last year. What he did last year took some pressure off the younger arms. He’s better this year. He’s one of those glue guys who holds the team together.”

Pollard says sophomores Owen Proksch and Aidan Weaver have made huge improvements from last season and says Weaver “made a big jump physically.”

“Both of those guys were dynamite, especially Owen,” Kirkpatrick adds. “Both of those guys, they come to the field ready to work and build on last season. They were just scratching the surface last year.”

Senior Josh Allen is back from arm surgery and Kirkpatrick says Allen “has thrown a lot of college innings, brings experience to a young staff.”

A handful of other returnees will compete with some newcomers to find a place on the mound.

About those newcomers. Pollard says Jackson Emus from Princeton leads the grad student transfers, while Kyle Johnson leads the freshmen. Johnson is one of the highest-ranked freshmen to enroll at Duke. The Leesburg, Va., native was ranked as the 46th best prospect in his class by Perfect Game. The early plan is to use him as both a pitcher and outfielder. 

Pollard praises Johnson’s versatility and competitiveness, while Kirkpatrick adds that Johnson “can really swing the bat and go get it in the outfield.”

Pollard also praises freshman catcher Macon Winslow as the most advanced catcher to come into Duke during his tenure. Freshman outfielder/pitcher A.J. Gracia hit three three-run homers in his second collegiate game, a 23-5 Duke rout of George Mason.

Duke is going to need lots of help from newcomers in the field. Catcher Alex Stone and outfielders Tyler Albright and Devin Obee are the only key position players returning from last season.

Stone is one of the nation’s best two-way catchers. He slammed 17 home runs last season, tying for the team lead with graduated M.J. Metz. He played almost every meaningful inning behind the plate last season but the arrival of Winslow should allow him to play some at DH.

“It’s a huge advantage to have Alex Stone,” Kirkpatrick says. “He’s done it for three years. He’s one of the best catchers in the country and he can really control the game back there.” 

Pollard calls Stone “the bulwark of our lineup.”

Infielder Ben Miller might be the most intriguing grad student position player. He’s a Durham native — he prepped at Jordan High School. But Pollard says “we passed on him the first time around. So, he has a chip on his shoulder.”

Miller was first-team All-Ivy last season at Pennsylvania and Duke didn’t pass on him when he entered the transfer portal.

First baseman Logan Bravo (Harvard), infielder Zac Morris (VMI), infielder Wallace Clark (Oklahoma) and outfielder Ben Weaver (Wheaton) are among the transfers augmenting Duke’s lineup.

Pollard says the transfers are “impactful” and the freshmen have a “professionalism about themselves. The newcomers have embraced our blue-collar ethic.”

“We’re excited about the new group,” Kirkpatrick adds. “The new position players picked us up a lot this fall. It’s an easy transition because of the culture Coach Pollard has created.”

Pollard says it will take time and patience to sort all this out.

“We have a lot of high-end talent on the mound, a lot of question marks in terms of spots offensively. We brought in some experience through the transfer portal and have some young talent. On the mound it’s Santucci and a lot to figure out. We’ll use this time to figure out the starting mix and build the bullpen after that.”

“A lot of things to work through,” adds Kirkpatrick. “The first couple of weekends, just trying to figure out what works well, what pieces fit where. We’d like to be able to go a little bit deeper into games with our starters, for sure. It’s a lot less taxing and a lot less strategizing.”

There’s another wrinkle. All of Duke’s home games will be played on campus, at Jack Coombs Field. After the season ends Duke is going to start a major renovation of the venerable field.

Pollard says the goal is to host NCAA Tournament games on campus.

Duke opened the season in Conway, S.C., the home of Coastal Carolina University. The Blue Devils defeated Indiana (6-3), George Mason (23-5) and Coastal (5-3), setting a school record with 11 home runs in the win over GMU. After a sweep of Northwestern the following weekend, Duke was 7-0 and off to its best start since the 2008 team began 10-0. Santucci won his first two starts without giving up a run and struck out 17 batters in 11 innings, while Beilenson picked up four saves in his first four appearances out of the bullpen.

Omaha is the ultimate goal of course — a big goal made possible by achieving lots of smaller goals.

“It’s been a talking point,” Kirkpatrick acknowledges. “It’s not going to change anything we do on a daily basis. We’re going to have that hunger, have that drive when we’re in the weight room, when we’re on the field. We’ve got to get there. We’re knocking on the door.”

“One win away,” Stone sums up. “You’re so close. But it fuels the fire.”

This story originally appeared in the 15.7 issue of GoDuke The Magazine – February 2024. Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707.  To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call (336) 831-0767.