The NC State baseball team closes out its brief four-game homestand against Tobacco Road rival Duke this weekend. This weekend's series against the ninth-ranked Blue Devils at Doak Field at Dail Park will run Friday through Sunday with first pitch times set for 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. Friday's first pitch was moved from 6 p.m. to 1 p.m. due to inclement weather on Friday night.
Friday and Sunday's games will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra. Saturday's game will be NC State's first on national television as the 3 p.m. contest will be televised on ACC Network.
A free audio stream will be available on the Varsity Network App for all three contests. The games will also be available on the radio on WKNC 88.1.
PROJECTED STARTING PITCHING MATCHUPSFriday RHP
Sam Highfill (NCSU) vs. LHP Jonathan Santucci (Duke)
Saturday RHP
Logan Whitaker (NCSU) vs. RHP Ryan Higgins (Duke)
Sunday LHP
Dominic Fritton (NCSU) vs. TBD (Duke)
THE MATCHUP: SERIES AGAINST DUKENC State is 168-128-1 all-time in the series against Duke. More notes from the series against the Blue Devils are listed below:
Sunday's matchup between the Wolfpack and Blue Devils will mark the 300th game between the two Triangle-based programs. NC State has won seven of the past 10 weekend series against the Blue Devils.
NC State last hosted Duke for a three-game set back in 2016, taking two games out of three at The Doak. The Wolfpack notched a 3-2 victory in the series opener before blowing out the Blue Devils 12-2 in game two to take the series. Duke avoided the sweep with a 2-1 win on Sunday.
The Wolfpack has won its past three weekend series against Duke, winning the first two games of each of those respective sets. Duke's last series victory over the Wolfpack came in 2014, taking games one and three in Durham.
NC State and Duke most recently met in Durham during the 2023 ACC Tournament. The Wolfpack registered an 8-7 win in 11 innings at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Duke erased NC State's 7-1 lead to send the game to extra innings.
Logan Whitaker pitched two scoreless innings of relief with four strikeouts to help the Pack secure a key postseason victory over the Blue Devils.
SCOUTING DUKEDuke (16-5, 3-3 ACC) ranks in the top three of a plethora of statistical categories, including first in HBPs (36) and hits allowed per nine innings (6.15), second in home runs (48), home runs per game (2.29) and slugging percentage (.599), and third in strikeouts per nine innings (11.7) and hits (246). The Blue Devils opened ACC play with a series victory at then top-ranked Wake Forest, taking games one and three to jump into the top 10 of the D1Baseball rankings. The Blue Devils dropped two games out of three to No. 10 Clemson this past weekend but responded with a 12-2 run-rule victory over Towson on Tuesday. Duke ace Jonathan Santucci ranks seven nationally with 46 strikeouts and 16.78 strikeouts per nine innings. As a staff, the Blue Devils have sported a 3.44 ERA, which ranks second in the league and 10th nationally.
https://gopack.com/news/2024/3/21/baseball-wolfpack-hosts-9-duke-for-acc-series 
