Duke softball wraps up regular season on dominant note, finishes 44-6

Duke finished the 2024 regular season with a 44-6 record and 20 ACC wins, their fourth straight seasons with 19 conference victories.

The Duke Blue Devils softball team concluded the regular season Sunday with a 5-3 win against NC State.

The win helped the Blue Devils cap off a 44-6 season with five straight wins and a sweep of the Wolfpack.

Duke finished the 2024 regular season with a 20-4 record against ACC opponents. The Blue Devils’ 44 wins are a new program record, and they have now won 19 or more conference games in four straight years.

Duke finished second in the ACC, just behind Florida State, who went 18-3 in conference play. Despite finishing behind FSU, the Blue Devils did win two of their three games against the ‘Noles earlier in the season.

Senior outfielder Claire Davidson set a school record with 61 RBIs for the season and led the team with 17 home runs. She produced a .423 batting average and a .522 on-base percentage for the season.

Sophomore second baseman Aminah Vega was the other Blue Devil to reach a double-digit home run total after she knocked 10 over the wall. She also finished with a .405 batting average and 48 RBIs, second only to Davidson in both categories, and she led the team with 17 doubles.

The Blue Devils boasted a balanced offense with six different players batting in at least 30 runs.

Duke’s pitching staff wrapped up a dominant regular season that helped the Blue Devils hold a top-five ranking for much of the regular season.

Pitcher Jala Wright recorded a team-best 1.15 earned run average, the sixth-lowest in the country, in 26 appearances. She started 20 of those games, finished with a 16-1 record, and went the distance for six complete games.

She racked up 147 strikeouts across 121.2 innings pitched, allowing just 0.94 combined walks and hits per inning. Duke’s opponents batted .173 against the senior.

Cassidy Curd, who started 18 of her 24 appearances, also impressed with a 1.38 ERA. She struck out 127 batters in 86.1 innings pitched, and her average of 10.3 strikeouts per seven innings was the fifth-highest in the nation.

Both Curd and Wright were named ACC Pitcher of the Week multiple times.

Duke went 9-2 against top 25 opponents, including two sweeps against Clemson and Virginia Tech. The Blue Devil’s two losses came against FSU and Oklahoma.

Duke will host the ACC Softball Championship, starting on Wednesday and continuing through Saturday.