Blue Devil of the Week: Cassidy Curd continues dominant pitching in junior season

During the spring season, The Chronicle is polling its readers every week via its Sportswrap newsletter to highlight one Blue Devil athlete’s outstanding performance. This week, the spotlight is on pitcher Cassidy Curd of Duke softball:

The stakes were high for Duke heading into the weekend, with the Blue Devils looking to take down a longtime rival and build up even more momentum heading into the home stretch of the season. 

And, without much issue at all, Duke handled business. The Blue Devils ran North Carolina out of town, sweeping the Tar Heels in a three-game series which included one decision by the run rule. Leading the charge was pitcher Cassidy Curd, who pitched a total of 15.1 innings in three days — tacking on 19 strikeouts for good measure.

The junior has been a dominant force for much of Duke’s season, as a regular starter and backbone of the Blue Devil squad that is looking to build upon its first-ever trip to the Women’s College World Series last year. While Curd had hit a rough patch in March, she bounced back in a big way with the victory over North Carolina. 

The Port St. Lucie, Fla., native pitched a season-high 11 strikeouts in the first game of the series, giving up just one earned run in the Friday matchup and none in either of the other two. In the Saturday game, Curd allowed only a pair of hits and zero walks, marking a remarkable return to form for the Blue Devil ace. 

“I had a really tough spell the last month. I think this weekend was when I broke out of it …” Curd said. “I was in a pretty big mental slump but kind of leaned really heavily on my teammates and the people to the left and the right of me, and they helped pull me out of it.”

This certainly isn’t Curd’s first rodeo, either. She’s been a key piece of the roster for several seasons now, having previously led the ACC in ERA with just a 1.31 and throwing four scoreless relief innings against Florida State in the 2024 ACC Championship game. Curd also enjoyed similar success against the Tar Heels her sophomore season, striking out 12 batters to secure a series win for the Blue Devils. She put up strong postseason numbers before ultimately falling short to Oklahoma, picking up wins in both of Duke’s games against Missouri in its Super Regional.

Curd will look to continue posting dominant performances like this in the coming weeks, as big games against ACC opponents loom. Duke comes up against Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and N.C. State to end its run of conference series.

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