The Blue Devils walked into Sunday afternoon’s game in Pittsburgh with the series on the line. They squeaked out the win Friday evening before narrowly falling to them Saturday afternoon.
Duke rose to the occasion and took the series home.
“Every game matters,” head coach Marissa Young said. “And every team we play is trying to take one from them.”
Coming off of a series sweep against North Carolina, the No. 16 Blue Devils had all of the momentum as they stormed Vartabedian Field for the series opener with Pittsburgh Friday. Immediately kicking things off for Duke, Thessa Malau'ulu continued her streak of success as lead-off hitter, with a home run that quickly put the Blue Devils on the scoreboard. By the end of the first inning, the UCLA transfer’s teammates had followed her quick scoring lead and notched four runs for Duke.
“People are coming up big for the team when we need it the most,” Young said.
Four seemed to be the lucky number for the Blue Devils (31-13, 12-6 in the ACC). Led by the likes of Malau’ulu and Ana Gold, Duke scored four runs in each of the first three innings, which gave them a comfortable 12-2 lead by the top of the fourth.
Despite the game initially looking like the Blue Devils would end the night early with a run rule, the Panthers (14-26, 4-14 in the ACC) refused to let Duke walk away with the easy win. With the win seemingly secured, Young took pitcher Dani Drogemuller, a former Panther herself, out of the circle in the middle of the fifth inning. In her place, Young entrusted the propeller of Duke’s defense to freshman Gabriella Mike.
Mike had only appeared as pitcher in three games before Friday afternoon, so the Panthers immediately took advantage of her relative inexperience. KK Esparza quickly homered down center field to give Pittsburgh another run on the board. Mike walked Amanda Ramirez in the next at-bat while Camryn Murphy earned a single. Finally, Kylie Griggs, a constant thorn in Duke’s side over the entire weekend, powered the double down the left field side, allowing Alena Ball, who came in to pinch run for Ramirez, to run home.
“We gave Pitt the momentum,” Young said. “So it was about figuring out how to take that back.”
With Pittsburgh’s bats fired up, Young quickly pulled Mike from the circle — still in the fifth — and gave the game back to Drogemuller. But the change in pitchers did not initially slow down the Panthers, and they earned one more run to inch closer to the Blue Devils before Drogemuller could find the third out.
Though Duke would still leave Friday night with the win, Pittsburgh took what had been a more than comfortable 12-2 lead for the Blue Devils and worked its way to end the contest 13-7, hitting its offense stride as the game came to a close.
Just as the Blue Devils had on Friday, the Panthers started off Saturday’s game with a home run. As Drogemuller pitched Friday’s game, Young turned to the usually reliable southpaw Cassidy Curd to start in the circle. Griggs continued on her hot streak and immediately got the best of Curd, homering over left field to open the contest. With Pittsburgh drawing first blood, Duke would be forced to play catch-up all night.
“Pitt capitalized in the first two games, really scoring just after we'd given up walks, errors, and we gave up the home run,” Young said.
In the fourth inning, Pittsburgh continued to capitalize on Duke’s errors, starting off with Curd walking Tieley Vaughn at the top of the lineup. Shortly after, Curd again walked Desirae Martinez, giving the Panthers two runners on base. With those two runners on base, Shelby Frazier stepped up the base and powered off a home run to give the home team a dominant 4-0 lead. Before the end of the inning, Ramirez would extend Pittsburgh’s lead to 5-0 with another home run.
Although the Blue Devils eventually put themselves on the scoreboard — courtesy of an Ana Gold three-run homer — their efforts came too late, and the Panthers evened up the series 1-1.
As Sunday’s tie-breaker began, the Panthers played like a team with nothing to lose, while the Blue Devils handled a nervous energy. Though Duke struck first as Aminah Vega scored on a throwing error, Pittsburgh answered against Drogemuller — and did more — in the bottom of the first, getting right back to where things had left off Saturday.
“[Sunday] was really about keeping the ball in the ballpark and not allowing those back-to-back sequences of events to happen,” Young said.
But the Blue Devils refused to let those sequences cripple them like on Saturday. With Curd pitching the last three and a half innings, Pittsburgh would not score for the rest of the afternoon.
In the third inning, Malau’ulu once again broke the scoring dam for Duke. She singled to the left side, but it wouldn’t be long before her teammates would help bring her home. With Malau’ulu and Gold both on base, Jada Baker got the hard hit to bring them home and even up the score. With the scoring ice broken, KK Mathis scored a three-run homer to give the Blue Devils the hard-earned 6-3 lead.
Another home run, this time by Vega, capped off the rest of Duke’s scoring for the afternoon. The visitors sealed their 11-3 victory and took the 2-1 series win.
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The Blue Devils will stay on the road for a midweek tilt against Charlotte, Tuesday at 6 p.m.