Ben Miller taking it “one day at a time” with injury

DURHAM – There’s no leaping to conclusions about Ben Miller’s availability this weekend.

Duke’s third baseman took infield practice during the Blue Devils’ open practice Friday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field, ahead of a best-of-3 super regional series against Murray State that begins Saturday.

Miller said afterward, though, that his status for this weekend isn’t cemented in.

“Yeah, we’re just taking it one day at a time and we’ll see how it feels when we wake up tomorrow,” the Durham native said Friday after Duke’s practice.

Miller was hit on his right arm, seemingly above the wrist, by a 95 mph pitch from Georgia’s Zach Harris during last weekend’s regional.

The back-to-back All-ACC first-team third baseman remained in that game — a 6-3 win for the second of Duke’s three wins in Athens. That was in the top of the ninth inning, though, so he only had to run the bases and play one inning in the field — in which he wasn’t involved in any plays.

Miller was a significant part of that win, having launched a three-run home run over the batter’s eye in centerfield to give Duke a lead in the third inning.

But he was out of the lineup for Sunday’s final game of the regional, replaced at third base by sophomore Noah Murray, who has 37 at-bats this season. Murray was 0-for-3 and batted eighth against Oklahoma State.

During an in-game interview with the broadcast crew on Sunday, Pollard said Duke’s hope was to have Miller back for this weekend.

Miller leads Duke in batting average (.325), homers (20), total bases (148), slugging percentage (.641) and OPS (1.065).