Orange Begin ACC Play at No. 6 Duke

DURHAM, N.C. – Syracuse begins Atlantic Coast Conference play at No. 6 Duke March 2-3 in Durham, N.C.

Due to impending weather in the Durham area, a doubleheader is being played on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday's single game first pitch is slated for noon. All three games will air live on ACC Network Extra.

ORANGE UPDATE:

The Orange enter conference play with an 8-6 record. Syracuse has allowed three-or-fewer runs in nine contests, including four shutouts.
Syracuse won the first two games at the Best on the Bayou Classic before losing the final three contests. The Orange beat Evansville, 10-0, in five innings and Louisiana at Monroe, 6-1.
Junior Taylor Posner had a weekend to remember, batting .438 (7-for-16), with six runs scored, four home runs and nine RBI. Posner also walked twice to post a .438/.500/1.188 slash line in the five weekend contests.
Posner currently boasts career-highs in home runs and RBI with five and 20, respectively. Posner ranks 20th nationally in runs batted in.
Sophomore Madison Knight posted a 2.96 ERA during conference play in 2023. Knight held opponents to a .188 batting average in 73.1 innings.
The Orange are 10-13 all-time in conference openers. Syracuse did not have a conference affiliation during its inaugural season.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT:

Duke enters the weekend with an ACC-best .929 winning percentage, having won 13-of-14 games.
The Blue Devils sit in the top 10 nationally in shutouts (3), scoring (4), batting average (5), on-base percentage (6) and ERA (7).
Duke has seven players batting .333-or-better. Ana Gold leads the team in home runs (6), RBI (22) and runs scored (22). Gold ranks fourth in the country with 1.57 runs per game and 10th in RBI.
In the circle, Jala Wright leads the staff with a 0.51 ERA in 27.2 innings while punching out 38 batters. Blue Devil hurlers have fanned 97 batters and allowed 13 earned runs over 83 frames.

SERIES HISTORY:
Syracuse travels to Duke for the second time in program history. The Blue Devils hold an 8-2 advantage in the all-time series. In their last meeting in 2022, the Orange won the middle game of a three-game set, 1-0. Ariana Adams, Lindsey Hendrix and Kaia Oliver all tossed 2.1 innings, holding Duke to just four hits in the shutout. The game's lone run came in the third when Angel Jasso scored on a fielding error.

WEEKEND SCHEDULE:

Saturday, March 2: at Duke at 1 and 3 p.m.
Sunday, March 3: at Duke at noon

UP NEXT:
Syracuse travels to Norfolk March 11 and 12 for the first of back-to-back series in Virginia. The Orange face Le Moyne, host Norfolk State and Quinnipiac.

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