Duke softball remained in the top five of D1Softball’s weekly rankings on Monday after a weekend sweep of the Syracuse Orange.
The Blue Devils, now 15-1 for the season and 3-0 in conference play, didn’t allow a run for the entire three-game series.
They began with a 7-0 win on Saturday, the first game of a double-header. Star pitcher Jala Wright continued her exceptional form with six shutout innings, allowing one hit and two walks while striking out five batters.
Wright took the mound again on Sunday, throwing the first four innings and surrendering three hits but again striking out five batters. She earned her seventh win of the season for the latter performance, and she retired her last six batters in a row.
The performances gave Wright four consecutive shoutout starts with 20 combined innings between them. She sports an ERA of 0.37 with more than three times as many strikeouts (48) as hits allowed (15) through her 37.2 innings of work this season.
The second game of Saturday’s double-header ended almost the exact same way with a 6-0 Duke victory. Senior Francesca Frelick, who batted in two runs during the first game against the Orange, batted in two more in the second with a double in the fourth inning.
Frelick has been a run machine for the Blue Devils as of late. Her four RBIs on Saturday gave her 13 runs batted in over her last six games, including a six-RBI performance against Michigan State.
Senior Claire Davidson also mashed a solo home run in the fourth inning, her fifth shot of the year and her second RBI of the afternoon.
The offense did the least damage in Sunday’s finale, with a three-run triple from first baseman Gisele Tapia in the bottom of the first providing the game’s only three runs.
Texas took over the top spot in the D1Softball poll from three-time defending national champion Oklahoma, who dropped to second. LSU and Oklahoma State rounded out the rest of the top 10.
Three other ACC teams made the site’s top 25. Clemson came in 11th, Virginia Tech slotted in 15th, and Florida State rounded out the trio in 16th.