The fox in the forest vs chronicle7/13/2023 Pollard has named Mooney one of the team’s three captains for this season, along with Boucher and Stone. This lands him at seventh in the nationwide ranking, a distinction Pollard will certainly hope Mooney can live up to. Coming into the 2023 campaign, D1 Baseball has tabbed Mooney as the best shortstop in the conference. 336/.443/.418 in the final 27 games of the season. These lofty hopes are likely a result of Mooney’s scorching end to the season, as he slashed. This performance landed Mooney on the ACC All-Freshman Team, the fifth player to do so in program history.Ĭoming into his second season in Durham, expectations for Mooney are high. 292 with 27 walks, good for second-best on the Blue Devils roster. The Rochester Hills, Mich., native is coming off of a freshman campaign in which he started every game at shortstop and hit. One of these veterans, and one who is certain to make a big impact, is Mooney. Martin HeintzelmanĬoming into this season, Duke will look to lean on its veterans to get back to the NCAA tournament. For the Blue Devils, he will likely be a consistent role player to fill out a lineup otherwise lacking in left-handed batters and, more importantly, an excellent defensive piece in the outfield. In 36 games played with LSU last season, DiGiacomo hit. But his calling card is defense and he's a guy that can really go get the baseball from gap to gap.” And this is a guy that's got a lot of college experience in the SEC. “And with some of our losses to the draft last year, we looked at our roster, we felt like we needed another left-handed bat. “He gives us another left-handed option at the plate,” said Pollard. Giovanni DiGiacomo, a redshirt junior out of LSU, will be a key piece in the lineup as a solid hitter and a speedy outfielder. As such, the Blue Devils went out and picked up a midseason transfer to fill much of that void. ![]() ![]() Between the loss of Pauley and prospect Cole Young’s decision to enter the professional system, it was a glaring weakness for Duke. ![]() Micah Hurewitz New player to watch: Giovanni DiGiacomoĬoming into this season, the Blue Devils were lacking in left-handed bats. The Blue Devils' schedule begins with 16 straight home games, a chance for Duke to dig in and find its footing ahead of a gauntlet of a conference schedule including trips to North Carolina, Virginia and Miami while also hosting Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and Louisville-all preseason top-25 teams. Captains Adam Boucher and Alex Stone look to bring additional veteran leadership to a very young squad that also features the 16th-ranked recruiting class in the country. Junior pitcher Luke Fox will miss the upcoming season due to injury, leaving Pollard an opportunity to lean on the opener to begin games on the bump. Notable departures include outfielder RJ Schreck, infielder Graham Pauley and pitchers Marcus Johnson and Jimmy Loper, while returning outfielder Devin Obee and the aforementioned trio have another year under their belts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |