DURHAM – Duke’s baseball team overhauled its coaching staff after last season, lost one weekend starter before the season began and another after 1½ months, and brought in 19 new players.

Of course it makes sense for this team to be leading the ACC’s Coastal Division with two league series left.

“I think chemistry gets to be an overused or cliché term in sports,” coach Chris Pollard said on Thursday afternoon. “But you know, this team has an ‘it’ factor about it. It truly does have chemistry and it does contribute to their success.”

The Blue Devils are enjoying some much-needed rest after going 15-3 in April. That included taking two of three games in road trips to Boston College and Virginia, which sandwiched a sweep of Louisville.

All three of those teams was in the top-15 of D1Baseball.com’s poll at the time of those series.

Now Duke is 10th and instead of fretting about the NCAA tournament bubble, the Blue Devils look to be on the safe side — for now — of being a regional host.

And they’re leading the ACC’s Coastal Division by a ½-game over Miami.

“I’m not sure you can define that ‘it’ factor,” said MJ Metz, a transfer from Division III Trinity University. “It’s sort of that intangible energy and feel.”

Metz’s team at Trinity was a combined 66-22 in the last two seasons, reaching the Division III College World Series last season.

His experience with this team has developed into a special one.

“I was telling some of the other guys, I’ve been around a lot of teams, a lot of good teams,” Metz said, “and this team has definitely developed into one of my favorite teams in the way that we all care for each other and root for each other.”

It would be unfair to say this season ever looked bad for Duke. The Blue Devils (31-13, 14-9 ACC) just spent the first 1½ months of the season taking two steps forward and one step back, it seemed.

A 52-run weekend sweep of Baylor was followed by a 9-0 win over East Carolina, but then Duke lost a series opener to Princeton. That four-game winning streak was Duke’s longest of February and March. Duke dropped a home series to Wake Forest, notched a road series win at Clemson, and then lost two of three at UNC.

All of it led to a 13-1 loss to Pittsburgh on March 31, with injury tacked onto insult in the form of a season-ending injury to Jonathan Santucci; the most-dependable starting pitcher.

And all a precursor to an April that’s set the Blue Devils up as a dangerous team in the next few weeks and into the postseason.

“I don’t think there was a huge difference (from March to April) from how we’re looking at it,” catcher Alex Stone said. “Just kind of, everything came together. As far as I’m concerned, our energy has been great the whole season, like our mentality has been the same.”

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Here are a few other things to know about Duke’s baseball team:

Luke Fox was the first starter to go down, lost to surgery in the fall. He started 17 games across the past two seasons and the lefty was penciled in for a weekend starter role.

Santucci’s injury has meant Duke needed to get creative and bullpen-dependent.

“You worry that you lean too hard on (the bullpen) and I worried about that down the stretch in April,” Pollard said. “That’s why this break came at such a good time for us.”

Whoever Pollard has turned to has often been the right choice.

The Blue Devils enter the weekend with the fifth-best team ERA in the country, at 3.60.

Duke’s leader in innings pitched is Alex Gow, with 42. He’s had three appearances of five innings as his season high. For comparison’s sake, the ACC’s other division leader — Wake Forest — has had four pitchers log more than 42 innings, and a fifth (Chase Mascolo) is at 40 2/3.

“Those guys have answered the call, they’ve been really good,” Pollard said of his bullpen. “You’ve had some guys like Charlie Bielenson, a fifth-year transfer, and Owen Proksch, a freshman, who have been willing and able to take the ball on back-to-back days and sometimes three days in a row to bridge a gap and get to the back end of our bullpen.”

As mentioned, Duke has a break from ACC play this weekend. The Blue Devils didn’t have a midweek game and won’t play again until a doubleheader against Longwood on Sunday (the Lancers are 19-27 and have lost to Virginia, UNC and N.C. State by a combined score of 50-2 this season).

While Duke’s staff gets a chance to rest its arms, Pollard juggles the task of keeping the Blue Devils sharp ahead of Sunday’s doubleheader and the last few weeks of the regular season.

“It’s always a huge challenge for us, right? It’s like we’ve got to get rest, at the same time we’ve got to get work,” Pollard said.

The balance takes on the form of ramping up.

Duke was off Monday and Tuesday other than working in the weight room. Wednesday was a traditional practice, and then Thursday afternoon featured a scrimmage.

“I think it’s important that they don’t go a week without seeing a live arm, or see a hitter standing in the batter’s box,” Pollard said.

Traditional practices will again be the case for Friday and Saturday leading into the return to action on Sunday. Pollard noted that days with a practice might require the Blue Devils to be in the facility for 2-3 hours, whereas gamedays entail about 6-7 hours.

“We can get them here and get them in and out in two hours and off their feet,” Pollard said. “We just told our guys, ‘When you’re not studying and you’re not out here on the field, sleep, eat and hydrate.’”

Duke’s last games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, where the Blue Devils play the majority of their home games, will be in the ACC tournament regardless of any NCAA tournament hosting responsibilities.

Any NCAA tournament games that the Blue Devils would host will be played at Jack Coombs Field, Duke’s on-campus stadium.

In order to meet the NCAA’s hosting requirements, temporary bleachers and other amenities will be added. The NCAA places minimums in order for teams to host NCAA tournament games.

The Bulls are home in the weekend of regionals (June 2-5) but are on the road in the following weekend.