Audio:  NCCU at Duke Broadcast Link (GameCentral)

DURHAM, N.C. – Fresh off Sunday’s series salvaging win against North Carolina A&T, the North Carolina Central University baseball program will make the two-and-a-half mile journey across town to battle the Blue Devils of Duke University on Wednesday evening at 6:00 at Jack Coombs Field.
 
This is the lone mid-week contest for the Eagles as they prepare for the critical conference series against Bethune-Cookman down in Daytona Beach, Fla. on April 13-14.
 
The NCCU Sports Network will hit the air at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday for the Champps Pregame Show to count listeners down to first pitch in meeting No. 12 between these two programs.  Play-by-play voice Chris Hooks will call all the live action from Jack Coombs Field and listeners are encouraged to interact with Hooks on Twitter by following @NCCUAthletics, by using the hashtag #NCCUBaseball, and by sending him an e-mail to either whooks@NCCU.edu or nccusn@NCCU.edu.
 
These two teams met back on March 12 with the Blue Devils outlasting the Eagles 6-3.  In that contest, NCCU led 3-1 heading to the top of the fifth inning only to see Duke score the game’s final five runs to pull away for the win.  The maroon and gray allowed only one earned run on the day with the Eagle defense committing three costly errors.
 
Junior lefty Jordan Quinn (Goldsboro, N.C.) will take the hill for his eighth start of the year.  Quinn (5-0, 1.61 ERA) has logged 50.1 innings and surrendered just nine earned runs with 29 strikeouts and 16 walks.  In his last meeting against Duke he scattered five hits through 7.0 innings of work with five strikeouts and four walks in getting a no-decision.
 
Entering the week, NCCU is third in the league in team batting at .266, and No. 1 in the MEAC in pitching with a team ERA of 3.56.  On the year, the Eagle pitching staff has issued a league low 81 walks, the closest team, Delaware State, has issued 112.
 
Individually Luis Diaz (Geneva, N.Y.) is still fourth in the league in batting average at .349, while Quinn is No. 2 in the conference with a 1.61 ERA.  Quinn is also No. 2 in the MEAC with five wins on the year.
 
Diaz is No. 3 in hits (44), No. 1 in runs scored (33), tied for sixth in doubles (6), No. 1 in walks (26), and No. 5 in on-base percentage.   
 
For more information about NCCU athletics, visit www.NCCUEaglePride.com or download the NCCU Sports Network app available in the App Store, Google Play and Amazon.