The Blue Devils rang triumphant over Syracuse this weekend despite being slain by a knightly performance in the last matchup of the series. Both sides’ defense and phenomenal pitching controlled the series, but home runs and timely defensive stops helped Duke come out on top.
At Duke Softball Field in Durham, the 13th-ranked Blue Devils took their first two games against Syracuse 3-1 and 6-0, both on Friday, before allowing a 3-2 loss in the third on Saturday.
Duke (19-9, 4-2 in the ACC) and the Orange (17-8, 1-5 in the ACC) set the tone of the series early, battling to keep each other off the scoreboard in the first seven innings, allowing only a single run each. The first game of the series headed to extra innings after a dominant performance by both Duke’s Dani Drogemuller and Syracuse’s Madison Knight. The Blue Devils’ bats finally caught fire in the bottom of the ninth, with freshman Brooklinn Thomas sealing the game with a walk-off two-run shot over the fence.
Duke mirrored its dominance on the mound in the second game, as junior ace Cassidy Curd took over for the Blue Devils. The Port St. Lucie, Fla., native cruised through the Orange’s lineup, with the help of junior Sophie Garner-MacKinnon, to shut out Syracuse. Between the two of them, they allowed just three hits throughout the contest.
Infielders Ana Gold and Thessa Malau’ulu dealt damage with the long ball, blasting two-run homers in the bottom of the fourth. As the dominance on the mound continued deep into the game, it quickly slipped out of reach for Syracuse, with Malua’ulu going yard for the second time in the sixth, putting the Blue Devils up for a final score of 6-0 and killing any chance of an Orange comeback.
In what turned out to be a fiery duel between two of the conference’s brightest pitchers, Saturday's game started off shakily for Curd. After Syracuse's leadoff hitter scampered to first following a throwing error by Curd, the Orange started the game with a bang. Two-hitter Madelyn Lopez torched a ball over the right field fence to drive in the first two runs. However, after taking a composing breath, it was back to regular form for Curd as she worked her way through the Syracuse lineup. After a hot start by the visiting team early on, runs were hard to come by for both squads, with untimely hitting ruining scoring chances for both sides.
Syracuse’s junior arm, Madison Knight, exercised her control throughout the game, bending sharp curveballs through the zone whenever she wanted, even when behind the count.
Still, tactful approaches served the Durham squad a handful of chances throughout the game. They placed runners in scoring position six times before the sixth inning, despite being unable to convert any into runs. Untimely hitting plagued the Blue Devils until the sixth inning, when Aminah Vega finally knocked in the squad's first run of the game with a single up the middle of the infield to score D’uana Jennings from second.
Vega’s timely hit at the bottom of the sixth sparked the Blue Devils’ momentum as Gold struck a powerful blast in the next at-bat, scoring Vega from second to tie the game with only five outs remaining. However, as Gold rounded first, went back to tag the base and then proceeded to second, the umpires ruled her out for not touching the bag fully, despite her retreat and hesitation on the base path to do so. So as the Blue Devils finally evened the score up, they cleared the bases for their last out of the inning, which resulted in a popout.
After letting up the two runs that tied the game up, Syracuse’s two-way ace Knight stepped to the plate, determined to finish a dominant performance that started on the mound, where she held the Blue Devils scoreless for the first five innings. In the first at-bat of the seventh inning, she soared a fastball deep into left, dampening the rallying crowd in Durham that had just gathered momentum. Curd retired the next two outs quietly, but her side was dismissed similarly to seal the game.
Despite losing on the other end of a breakout performance, the Blue Devils handled a talented Orange bullpen with relative ease in the first two games of the series, winning the second game 6-0 in a dominant performance from the plate and on the mound.
The Blue Devils look to continue a string of confident pitching performances this week as they take on Liberty in a Tuesday doubleheader.
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