DURHAM – Alex Stone watched MJ Metz’s first home run from the dugout last weekend and thought that was cool.

“Man, not many people have probably hit a home run … on no ACL,” Stone said.

Of course, there was escalation. Metz homered in his next two at-bats, turning a memorable performance into the stuff of legend, in Duke’s regional-opening 12-3 win over UNC Wilmington.

“He did it again and I was like, ‘That’s really cool.’ He hit the third one and I was like, ‘All right, that’s ridiculous. I’ve never seen that before,’” Stone said.

Metz hadn’t either; not the torn ACL aspect of things, though. He’d never had a three-homer game at any level of his baseball career.

The graduate transfer from Trinity University (Division III) clubbed a fourth homer of the regional in the Blue Devils’ 12-3 win over Coastal Carolina in Monday night’s decisive game. In the least-surprising news of Metz’s weekend, he was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player.

And moving forward into this weekend’s super regional against Virginia, which begins at noon Friday, Metz will be back in the Blue Devils’ lineup sporting the same brace on his left knee.

“Baseball is such a mental game, so I would definitely say mind over matter is a big part of it,” Metz said. “But … the injury is what it is and I’m really not trying to do anything different. Still being there for my teammates, I’m still as excited, ACL or no ACL.”

The nitty-gritty of the injury sounds like the simplest part of the process.

Metz suffered the torn ACL during the ACC baseball championship game against N.C. State. He said he just took an awkward step in the dugout during an extra-innings loss to the Wolfpack, in which he hit a game-tying homer in the ninth inning. Metz has told people it was “the coolest things I’ve done on a baseball field to that point followed by the worst thing I’ve done.”

And then there’s the recovery that had him ready to play a week and a half later.

Coach Chris Pollard expressed gratitude to Duke’s medical staff, namely associate athletic trainer Aldo Plata, for getting Metz ready to play. The biggest factor in playing on a torn ACL is reducing the swelling, Pollard said.

“And then from there, it’s just MJ,” Pollard continued. “It’s a mature guy who knows who he is as a player and who’s really tough. It was his decision the whole time.”

That decision came down to a Thursday meeting last week between Pollard and Metz before the coach had to submit Duke’s roster for the regional.

It boiled down to Metz deciding he could handle whatever pain was associated with the injury. After that, he was on the roster and in the roster the following day to be the same player he’d been all season — albeit with a torn ACL.

“I talked to our hitting coach about it, I’m like, ‘Should I be trying to hit the ball in the air more?’” Metz said. “He goes, ‘There’s no point. It’s not worth changing something you’ve been doing all year.’”

The timing of when Metz has hit the majority of his home runs falls in line with this logic, too.

Metz homered in Duke’s season opener and again a month later in a loss to Clemson. Those were his only two homers in the Blue Devils’ first 28 games.

It’s a team that found its groove in April, going 15-3 and winning three straight ACC series, including taking two of three from Virginia. Metz had nine homers that month, including five straight games with one that bled into the start of the series at Virginia, giving him 15 home runs in Duke’s last 32 games.

The whole “if it’s broke, don’t fix it” cliché might not apply here given the nature of the injury, but Metz is intent on keeping things as consistent as possible.

He’s still got one healthy knee and perhaps more homers to hit.