Duke Has Found Their Ace in Owen Proksch

The Duke Blue Devils pitching staff is starting to settle in and after last night’s 9-1 win over Pittsburgh, it’s evident that they’ve found their staff ace in junior left-hander Owen Proksch. He made his fifth start of the season on Thursday night, delivering career highs in innings, pitches thrown and strikeouts in a dominant performance that saw just a pair of hard hit balls put in play. 

Proksch dazzled over six shutout innings, throwing all three of his pitches for strikes to keep Pitt’s lineup off balance. He matched his career high in strikeouts with one out in the 3rd inning when he struck out David Pedanou on three pitches– his sixth K in the first seven batters he faced. The only hard struck balls in play against him came in the fifth, when Pedanou laced a single to shallow center and Luke Cantwell blasted a fly ball to the warning track just to the right of the batters’ eye in center field.

“We made a good switch in the 2nd [against Pitt starter Kyle Demi] and Owen Proksch did the rest,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said following the game. “He was really, really good.” 

Prior to his start against Virginia last month, Proksch had never started a game in his college career. Up until that point, he’d been utilized at Duke as a high-leverage reliever, serving in a variety of roles from long relief to closer. In fact, Proksch was the early season closer for the Blue Devils before moving into the rotation, but wasn’t getting enough opportunities in save situations. Only two of the lefty’s first seven appearances on the season came in high leverage closing situations– a tie game in the 8th inning against Cincinnati on Opening Weekend and a save situation against Cornell the following week.

Proksch’s last appearance as a reliever came at Stanford with the Blue Devils trailing 9-5 in the 8th inning and in danger of being swept. Duke would end up losing, 10-5 and at a low point in their season at 12-9 on the year and 2-4 in the ACC. A series of difficult midweeks and a grueling ACC stretch that included road trips to Virginia, North Carolina, and Miami loomed.    

“We needed a spark,” said Pollard of his decision to move Proksch to the rotation. “We pitch him on Friday night and we know we're guaranteed high leverage innings.” 

Uo to that point, the Southlake, Texas native had made 61 appearances over three years for Duke and had never thrown more than three innings in a game. Pollard didn’t think he’d even been extended beyond three innings or 50 pitches in scrimmages, either. On Thursday night, Proksch pitched into the 7th inning and departed after throwing 96 pitches. His development into an ACC Friday night starter has been nothing short of impressive.   

“He's really grown into the role,” Pollard said. “He's a roller of the dice. One thing we knew moving him into that role is that you're going to get a really tough competitor. He's the bulldog of this team.”

Since moving Proksch into the rotation, Duke has turned their season around. They’ve gone 14-5 since the Stanford sweep and 4-1 on nights Proksch has pitched– no small feat considering he was thrust into the Friday role and has had to duel the likes of Virginia’s Jay Woolfolk, NC State’s Dom Fritton, Carolina’s Jake Knapp, and Miami’s Griffin Hugus. While transitioning from closer to starter midseason may seem daunting, the junior southpaw has remained unfazed and is enjoying the challenge.

“My first two years here I was throwing every other day,” Proksch said. “It's nice to settle into my routine and go at it week to week.”

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing over these five starts, however. Proksch has struggled at times with command and had to grind out results. The one start of his that Duke lost came in a hard-luck defeat to cross-town rival North Carolina, where Proksch went four innings and gave up three runs. In a bases loaded jam in the 3rd inning of that game after allowing two singles and back-to-back hit batters, Proksch struck out Luke Stevenson, Hunter Stokely, and Tyson Bass in consecutive at-bats to escape the frame with just one run allowed. Overall, he struggled with command inside as he hit five batters, but showed grit and toughness by limiting UNC to just three runs and giving Duke a chance to win the game.    

As a reliever, Proksch was able to deploy his fastball at 92-to-94 MPH. Against Miami last weekend, the fastball sat lower at 89-to-91 MPH. Last night against Pittsburgh, the fastball velocity was down at 87-to-89 MPH. Both Pollard and Proksch were adamant that the velocity drop was due to pitching on short rest and not an approach adjustment to increase pitch location accuracy. Even so, the Duke ace was able to deliver all three of his pitches with pin point command against Pittsburgh.

“That's the first night where I had all three pitches going for me,” Proksch explained. “It always helps when you can put three [pitches] in the zone, being able to pitch a little more slider and have a changeup of working.”

While the velocity drop had nothing to do with improving his command, Pollard explained that Proksch is working to be more in control of his delivery and be able to execute at a little higher strike rate. Being able to throw all three pitches for strikes will certainly help the former closer succeed at this level. The slider, which sat 79-to-81 MPH last night, was an especially effective weapon against Pitt. 

Proksch had the feel for the slider immediately, and was able to use it to induce multiple whiffs in the first inning. Proksch was able to catch Luke Cantwell and Caden Dulin– two hitters who are notoriously difficult to strikeout– looking with the slider before a swing-and-miss strikeout from Melendez on the same pitch ended the inning.

“The fastball was down a little bit,” Proksch said, “So I was using the slider and trying to be in the zone with that. I knew it was working and I kept going to it when I needed it.” 

Proksch mixed his pitches brilliantly for six innings and was only threatened with two outs in the 3rd inning following a misplayed fly ball in left field that landed for a hit in front of Ben Rounds. Cantwell and Dulin were able to draw quick walks before Jayden Melendez softly lined out to left to end the threat. Those were the only baserunners to reach second base against Proksch.

Jake Hyde stayed hot for Duke and sparked the offense in the 2nd inning, culminating with a three-run blast to right field by Sam Harris to make it 4-0. After starting the season batting .200 with 13 strikeouts and just one home run, Harris is now 9-for-25 with four long balls and 11 runs batted in. Catcher Macon Winslow went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs as his average creeps closer to .300. All nine starters reached base as Duke romped to the 9-1 win.

After back-to-back hard luck road series losses to North Carolina and Miami, Duke currently sits 8th in the ACC at 10-9, but Pollard is optimistic given how his Blue Devils navigated a difficult stretch that included a home series to NC State and road trips to Virginia, UNC, and Miami. Even the midweeks were challenging as they hosted UConn, East Carolina, and Campbell.

“We showed a lot of fight,” Pollard said. “We dealt with some injuries during that stretch and dealt with a couple of bouts of illness. We were fatigued, but our guys were really tough.”

Duke will finish the season with 12 of their next 16 games at home, including this 9-game homestand. Even with difficult matchups against Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Georgia Tech on the horizon, the Blue Devils have set themselves up to finish the regular season strong and position themselves for another postseason run.

“I told them, ‘let's go home and get fresh and get healthy and make a run,’” Pollard said.

After finally settling the rotation and establishing a new staff ace in Owen Proksch, Duke is ready to make some noise down the stretch.