RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke baseball is coming off a season in which the Blue Devils went all the way to the Super Regionals of the NCAA tournament. This year, they're looking to make a trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series. 

For one senior on the team, this will be his last chance to win it all as a student. But he hasn't recorded one out or reached one base in his four years with Duke. But somehow, he's still one of head coach Chris Pollard's most valuable guys.

Duke senior Max Brown is the lead student-manager for the Blue Devils, who are ranked No. 12 in the country, according to D1 Baseball. He's also the founder of the team's statistical analysis department, giving data to coaches based on what they're seeing in practice and in games.

To Brown, there's a happy medium that teams need to find to keep both the numbers guys in the front offices and the baseball purists happy. 

"The teams that are able to use analytics when maybe a more quantitative approach is needed, but also using the eye test when analytics fails to account for certain things such as momentum, you know, how players feel, maybe that isn't really shown in the data, and being able to combine those I think is what's most successful," Brown said. 

Brown is an economics major from Maine who fell in love with the sport when his favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, dominated the game in the early 2000s. He knew he wanted to be a part of baseball in college but also knew he couldn't necessarily play as well as the guys who wear Duke blue.

Luckily, he knows the lingo and can read numbers like a batter reads a fastball. 

"You know, a lot of teams that we play are really, really solid. So we don't want to give them extra outs, and turn a 27-out game on the defensive side into a 28 or 29, which can greatly lower our probability of winning," Brown said.

Brown does many things for the team, including setting up drills and equipment, tossing with the guys when they need an extra arm, and entering data into charts and programs. Thanks to his education at Duke, he's learned how to make programs and code his own material to help Duke with advanced analytics.

He offers advice on the smallest of things.

"In this second at-bat, you actually made a good decision, taking a pitch that was off the plate despite the umpire calling it a strike," Brown said. "And so being able to show that, and showing some justification for players trusting their instinct at the time, is something I think has been most notable."

Head coach Chris Pollard is well aware of how much Brown means to him and the team. 

"We've made analytics a priority in our program because the margin between winning and losing in the ACC is really small," Pollard said. "It's one of those areas where we're able to create a little more margin for ourselves, if we're able to understand from a standpoint of player development and also from a standpoint of scouting our opponent."

It's a fair trade for the experienced coach. Pollard gets a top-notch analyst and manager to help the team. 

"Max has been a huge part of what we've done the last four years," Pollard said. "I tell people, and I mean this, I truly believe Max Brown will run a major league organization one day. That's how talented I think he is. And no, I don't think we're in the position we are without all the hard work he's put in over the last four years."

In return, Brown gets real-world experience as he moves toward his goal of working in baseball for the foreseeable future.

"Through my experience here, I get to see what the day-to-day operation of a top-tier, division-one program is like," Brown said. "A lot of these guys will go on to play professionally and being able to look at data that gets collected, things that our coaching staff kind of prioritizes, is a great learning experience for me."

Duke starts its season on Feb. 16 against Indiana in Conway, South Carolina.

The Blue Devils have made three of the last four NCAA tournaments. They're hoping to reach this year's tournament as well, as Brown looks to end a successful tenure as one of the most important members the Duke baseball team has ever had.