Duke softball pitcher Cassidy Curd’s Friday heroics gave the Blue Devils the opening win in a best-of-three Super Regional series against Missouri, and the sophomore reached a career milestone in the process.
Curd dealt 5.1 innings against the Tigers, giving up no hits and one walk while striking out eight Missouri batters in the process. The afternoon brought her to 307 career strikeouts, the third Blue Devil to ever reach 300.
The sophomore entered Friday’s appearance with 140 strikeouts in 102 innings, and her 9.6 strikeouts per seven innings was the eighth-best mark in the country.
Curd’s 307 strikeouts are the third-most in school history behind teammate and ACC Pitcher of the Year Jala Wright, who has 427, and longtime star Peyton St. George, who tacked on 641 from 2018-22.
With Wright’s senior year coming to a close, however, Curd seems poised to break that program record in the future. At her current pace, she’d need about 256 more innings in the circle to reach St. George’s record. She’s already put together 234.2 in her first two seasons and figures to only become a larger focus of Duke’s defense.
Cass with her first K of the day, also No. 3⃣0⃣0⃣ of her career! 😈
B3 | DUKE 3, MIZ 3 pic.twitter.com/Z9WDVDGavE
— Duke Softball (@DukeSOFTBALL) May 24, 2024
Curd and the Blue Devils have a chance to clinch the first Women’s College World Series appearance in school history this weekend, needing to win on Saturday or Sunday to defeat Missouri for one of the eight spots.