Duke baseball coach Chris Pollard updates Alex Mooney injury in Super Regional vs. Virginia

Duke shortstop Alex Mooney took a pitch off the side of his right knee in the bottom of the third inning in the Super Regional game against Virginia.

After a trip to the locker room to get examined, Mooney found himself back out there in the fourth inning. He took his regular spot at shortstop in the infield.

Head coach Chris Pollard gave an update on how his star shortstop felt following the bang to his knee.

“Yeah he took one off the side of the knee,” Pollard said on the ESPN broadcast. “He’s hurt pretty good right now. But I’ll tell ya, he’s one of the toughest kids I’ve ever coached. He doesn’t want to come out. We’ll see how he moves in the next inning or two. We’ll take it inning by inning right now.”

Mooney reportedly asked for Advil during a pitching change during the top of the fourth. No doubt the pain was still relevant.

Mooney was on the ACC All-Freshman Team last season, starting all 54 games at shortstop. He had a lot of momentum coming into 2023.

On the season, Mooney is batting .315, eight home runs, 38 RBI, scored 68 runs and has 78 hits. Those were significant increases from his freshman year.

Chris Pollard praises Duke freshmen in Game 1 win

Following big win over the Cavaliers in the opening game of the Super Regional, Duke head coach Chris Pollard praised the performance of his freshmen pitchers.

“What a great baseball game. What an incredible atmosphere and a showcase for college baseball. Pollard said. “I thought our team was really, really tough. I thought they had great competitive fight. I thought we were poised and composed in a tough atmosphere to play in.”

Freshman James Tallon broke the single season saves record on Friday afternoon in Charlottesville, racking up his 12th save of the season. Sophomore Fran Oschell III improved to 6-0 on the season, after allowing one hit in 2.2 innings of work. He finished with three strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 0.69.