Rob Childress still looking for right mix of innings, matchups from bullpen

Key notes from Rob Childress interview

• Army is incredibly well-coached and had their number one against Roa. They bounced back after Friday when they had a chance in the 6th with two runners in scoring position, but Chris Weber got us out of a jam, and we would score five in the next inning. That was a seven-run swing, which doesn't tell you how close the game was for much of it. You never know how guys will respond when teams punch back, and they handled it extremely well. That was an Army team that gave Duke all they had and almost took two out of three the week before.
   
• We definitely needed what we got from Army this week. If we're going to continue to grow as a team, we have to test ourselves and succeed against quality opponents, and in late-game situations. We definitely need to get better defensively, and that will be a big emphasis for us moving forward.
   
• By watching this offense operate, you can see the guys are doing it together. They're all being competitive with two strikes, willing to take a walk, and taking a pitch if that's what it takes. The selflessness gives me goosebumps in that these players are willing to do whatever it takes to get the offense rolling, and it's great to see that as a coach.
   
• For Bryce Blaum, you could see as we got into the season that he was trying to do a little too much early and got off to a slow start. He's gotten back into the rhythm of how he plays and it's starting to show now. He's going to be a big piece in this lineup all season. He's willing to do what it takes, and it shows what the offense is willing to do collectively.
   
• Asa Lacy and Christian Roa have been outstanding. You look at their outings and ask, “What can we do better?” Both threw 30 pitches in the first inning and were out by the 5th inning. We need to get more length out of them. These are guys that will log a lot of strikeouts and sometimes get a little deeper into counts, but we're going to continue to build them up and make them stronger because they are going to be big for us as guys that will have a future in this sport for a long time.
   
• Bryce Miller is so explosive, and the ball explodes out of his hand. He certainly got the job done on Saturday for us. He hit the first batter and got into a jam, but he was able to handle it and end the threat and grab the momentum. He came back Sunday even better. You never know what a guy will be able to do on no-days rest, but he came back and was outstanding.
   
• A lot of our bullpen innings are still up for grabs. We still haven't been able to get Trevor Werner on the mound, but I think the plan is to get him some innings tonight.
   
• I was really proud of Alex Magers as well and how he came out and went to work. He came out of a 1A high school, and now at the college level, he has no fear. He came in ready to go, and he's earned the innings he's getting.
   
• With Moo Menefee, he is the key to our bullpen so we need to get him out there and get him into attack mode.
   
• Talking to the coaches this morning thinking about 8-0, the fact we did that in a 10-day span is impressive and goes to show how our guys have bought in. Looking forward, tonight we're refacing a left-hander against HBU, something we haven't seen much of yet. For us, we just need to continue being great together and putting together good at-bats to be successful in this contest.
   
• We're keeping the same rotation as we head into the weekend. Jonathan Childress will go tomorrow against Incarnate Word, who is off to a good start to their season. We played them last year in a mid-week game we lost, so this will be another great game to show us what we need to work on and refine before heading into the weekend.