ACC Baseball Tournament: How Noles matchup with Duke Blue Devils

No. 5 seed FSU baseball (29-21, 20-16) will take on No. 9 seed Duke Blue Devils (28-20, 16-17 ACC) in the ACC Baseball Tournament.

The Noles are grouped with Duke and Miami in Pool D. FSU will take on Duke Wednesday at 11 a.m. and Miami on Friday at 3 p.m.

Duke batters are hitting .285 with an on-base percentage of .371 and have slugged 61 home runs, 15 triples, and 97 doubles.

Duke pitchers will enter the contest with a 4.74 ERA, with opposing teams batting .252, 459 strikeouts, and 179 walks in 421.2 innings. They have allowed 53 home runs and hit 62 batters.

Defensively, Duke has 57 errors in 48 games for a fielding percentage of .967.

FSU pitchers enter the contest with a 3.38 ERA, with opposing teams batting .227, with 578 strikeouts and 177 walks in 450.2 innings. Nole pitchers have allowed 43 home runs.

FSU batters are hitting .247 with an on-base percentage of .364 and have 72 home runs, three triples, and 74 doubles.

Defensively, FSU has 56 errors in 50 games for a fielding percentage of .970.

FSU Keys To Victory

Bryce Hubbart will get the start for the Noles Wednesday morning. He was solid in his last outing against a good offense in NC State.

The most important factor for Hubbart is getting ahead in the count and not walking batters. That’s when he gets into trouble, otherwise, he has the stuff to put up a lot of goose eggs for opposing offenses. Duke can swing it and have a ton of extra-base hits on the season.

Offensively, the Noles need to continue the offensive barrage from their last outing against NC State. Duke pitchers are usually around the plate and average nearly a hit allowed per inning. However, they are not the best defensive team and will kick it around at times in the field.

Duke has won eight games in a row and will come into the contest confident while playing on their home field. I like FSU pitching to be better than their hitting, and hopefully, Duke pitchers will make enough mistakes to give the Noles an edge on offense.

The game will begin at 11 a.m. ET and will air on Bally’s South.