Tag: Claire Davidson

Blue Devils softball lose first series of the year to Virginia on senior day

The Blue Devils lost back-to-back games for the first time in 2024 after a senior day sweep at the hands of Virginia on Saturday.

For the first time in 2024, the Blue Devils lost a series this weekend.

No. 3 Duke took the Friday game after a 12-inning marathon, an extra-inning walk-off on a bunt by Jada Baker. The series-opening win, powered by 12 scoreless innings in the circle from senior Jala Wright, moved Duke to 39-4 for the year. It was the Blue Devils’ 11th straight conference win, and Duke seemed to be operating at full power.

As the sun rose on Saturday, the final regular-season weekend games at Duke Softball Stadium awaited the Blue Devils. They faced the Cavaliers twice, first at 1 p.m. and again at 3:30 p.m., and lost both games by a single run.

Senior Claire Davidson, in the midst of maybe the greatest offensive season in program history, popped up a sacrifice fly in the third inning of the opening game to give Duke a 1-0 lead. Davidson already set the single-season RBI record during the midweek win over UNC Greensboro, and she finished the weekend with 59 RBIs for the season.

However, Virginia leadoff hitter Jade Hylton blasted a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth to shoot her squad ahead. The Blue Devils could only tack on two more runs in the fifth, more sacrifice flies from Kelly Torres and Davidson, but the final two frames passed in a scoreless draw for the Cavaliers to clinch the upset.

Davidson, Wright, Torres, Francesca Frelick, Lillie Walker, Gisele Tapia, and Sarah Goddard stared down redemption in the final weekend home game of their senior season.

Instead, the Cavaliers tacked on the first three runs of the game. Hylton homered again, raking in two more runs in the top of the third, before an RBI single from left fielder Kelsey Hackett gave UVA the 3-0 lead.

Wright came back into the circle in the middle of the sixth inning and did her part, striking out Virginia’s last five batters to keep the offensive challenge as small as possible.

Sophomore sensation Aminah Vega tripled in the bottom of the sixth, her 27th extra-base hit of the year, to bring home the first run. Two batters later, Tapia brought the second baseman home with a single into left field. All of a sudden, the Blue Devils were within one run of escaping with the series.

Instead, Virginia brought Madison Harris, who surrendered Friday’s fateful run, back into the circle. Harris retired her first batter to end the sixth and started the seventh with back-to-back outs, putting Duke’s back entirely against the wall.

D’Auna Jennings drew a walk to keep hopes alive, putting the tying run on base, but Torres flew out harmlessly to end the rally.

Duke, now 39-6 for the season, does play two more home games to close the regular season this coming week. Gardner-Webb comes to town on Tuesday before a Wednesday battle against Longwood. The Blue Devils end the year with a three-game road series against NC State.

Duke softball’s Claire Davidson named D1Softball’s National Player of the Week

Senior Claire Davidson batted in 10 runs in three games against Clemson, earning her D1Softball’s National Player of the Week honors.

D1Softball named Duke’s Claire Davidson its National Player of the Week on Tuesday.

The senior’s recent form came to a head against the Clemson Tigers over the weekend when she recorded five hits, including a pair of 3-run homers, in three games. She added two doubles in the Sunday finale, helping the Ble Devils clinch the sweep, and batted in 10 runs across the series.

Duke softball has played 12 games since March 28. In that time frame, Davidson has batted 0.552 with eight home runs and 24 RBIs.

Here surge has her on the doorstep of some program records as she has 15 home runs (four short of the single-season mark) and 56 RBIs (already tied for the school record) with nine games left in the regular season.

This is the second time a Blue Devil earned national honors after second baseman Aminah Vega was named the NCAA Player of the Week for her performances against Virginia Tech last month.

Davidson’s chase for Duke history continues with a Wednesday road game against UNC Greensboro.

Claire Davidson is on pace for the best offensive season in Duke softball history

The Blue Devils took the top spot in the Softball America rankings on Monday, and senior star Claire Davidson’s bat is a big reason why.

Duke softball, for the first time in program history, is the best team in the country.

The Blue Devils, now 33-3 on the season and 13-2 against ACC foes after sweeping North Carolina this weekend, took the top spot in the Softball America rankings on Monday morning. It’s hard to find a bigger reason why than the bat of senior star Claire Davidson.

Davidson hit two home runs in the series finale on Sunday, a solo shot in the opening inning and a three-run bomb in the fourth, to power Duke to a 6-1 victory. The senior has produced a hit in eight of her last 12 at-bats, and the two home runs on Sunday gave her six bombs and 14 RBIs in her last seven games. The torrid late-season stretch has her in some exceptional national company, as she is inside the top 20 in the nation in both homers and runs batted in, but she’s not just unrivaled among her teammates. She’s unrivaled in Duke program history as she’s on pace to break (or shatter) a handful of records.

No Blue Devil has finished a season with a slugging percentage better than .797. Davidson, through 36 games, is hovering at 1.000. Her 46 RBIs are only 10 shy of the most in Duke history despite the Blue Devils having 15 games in the regular season (and an entire postseason) left to play. Davidson’s 12 doubles would also be on pace to break the Duke record of 16 if not for teammate Aminah Vega, who has 13 already on the season.

Ana Gold set the program single-season home run record last year with 19, a mark that looked safe for most of the season, but Davidson’s two blasts on Sunday got her to 13 for the year, moving yet another school record in reach.

All of these records center around Davidson’s power, but her contact and consistency are just as good. Teammate D’Auna Jennings set a Duke record with a .462 batting average in her outstanding freshman campaign last year. Davidson is batting .459 thus far.

The senior is doing something truly special over the last two weeks, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better athlete on campus over the past few years.

Duke softball sweeps UNC after Claire Davidson’s two-home run game

Claire Davidson blasted two home runs in the first four innings on Sunday night as the Blue Devils cemented a dominant sweep over North Carolina.

No. 2 Duke softball took down North Carolina for a third straight time on Sunday night, a 6-1 victory fueled by two early home runs from senior Claire Davidson.

Sporting some new all-white uniforms for the series finale, Davidson wasted no time in the Blue Devils’ second at-bat of the game. With the sun low in the Durham sky, she swiped at a low pitch from UNC’s Kenna Raye Dark and blasted a line drive into right-center field.

The ball carried just far enough, bounding harmlessly into the grassy hill over the wall for a solo shot.

The two North Carolina teams couldn’t generate any more offense for the next three innings, but in the bottom of the fourth, strode back to the batter’s box with runners on first and second with two outs on the board. Facing down Dark for the third time of the day, the Duke senior smashed another fly ball to right-center field, landing no more than 30 feet away from her first blast, for a three-run homer.

Sophomore Aminah Vega followed up with a solo shot three pitches later, pulling a fly ball down the right field side for a towering homer and breaking the game apart.

Dark didn’t throw another pitch.

The two homers and four RBIs added to what has been a seismic senior season from Davidson, who now leads the Blue Devils with 13 home runs and 46 RBIs so far this season.

Vega, who won NCAA Player of the Week last week, is second on the roster in both metrics with nine home runs and 39 RBIs.

In the circle, a trio of Duke pitchers lived up to their usual form from the season thus far. Dani Drogemuller, the starter, got the game ball for the first 3.1 innings and allowed six hits, but she never allowed a run and struck out two batters. Star senior Jala Wright surrendered the lone run of the game in her 1.1 innings of work before Lillie Walker tallied the last seven outs.

Walker, who picked up her eighth win of the season, only allowed one hit. One year after she put up a 1.20 ERA in 28 appearances, the senior currently sports an ERA of 0.90 through her first 17 outings of this campaign.

The win put the finishing touches on a dominant three-game series for the Blue Devils. Duke allowed just five runs across 19 innings and outscored the Tar Heels 20-5, and the Blue Devils have now won 11 straight games over their in-state rival.

Duke has now won eight straight games and 12 of its past 13, and the Blue Devils are 33-3 on the season. They spring back into action with a Tuesday evening game against East Carolina before a Wednesday game against Campbell.

Duke softball takes first game against UNC for 100th conference win

The Blue Devils took game one from the Tar Heels on Friday for their 31st win of the season and their 100th conference win in program history.

Duke softball accomplished three major things on Friday night.

First and foremost, the Blue Devils beat North Carolina. No matter the sport, a victory over the Tar Heels always satisfies. Duke took down UNC for a 6-4 series-opening win at Duke Softball Stadium.

The victory also gave Duke its sixth win in a row, its 31st of the season, and its 100th all-time conference win in program history.

The Blue Devils entered the game with all the momentum after a sweep of Virginia Tech, previously unbeaten in conference play, last weekend.

Duke picked up where it left off in the circle with star senior Jala Wright opening the game with four scoreless frames, striking out five batters over that frame.

UNC didn’t go down without fights. The Tar Heels got a runner to third base in each of the first three innings, but Wright struck out the final batter in the first and third and forced a harmless groundout in the second to keep her slate clean.

The Blue Devils offense took a second to get going, but Duke got off the ground in the bottom of the third. After a single and a walk in the first two at-bats of the inning, second baseman Aminah Vega singled home the first run of the game.

Vega got the opening RBI fresh off of her NCAA Player of the Week honors when she brought home nine runs in three games against the Hokies.

Two batters later, Kelly Torres singled home two more runs to give the Blue Devils some breathing room.

The Tar Heels finally got a hold on Wright in the fifth inning when their first two batters walked and singled, putting runners on the corners. A sacrifice fly and a wild pitch drove home two runs, but the Duke pitcher steadied herself to retire the last two batters of the frame.

Wright finished the game with seven strikeouts, six hits, and two earned runs in 5.2 innings en route to her 12th win of the year. She set a personal mark, too, with her 350th career strikeout to record the first out of the sixth inning.

The Blue Devils answered quickly on the offensive end, too. With the lead now one, Francesca Frelick strode to the plate with nobody aboard and two outs and promptly did this.

The towering no-doubter pushed the lead back to two, but senior star Claire Davidson decided that she wanted a little more insurance in the following inning.

The two-run bomb was Davidson’s 11th home run of the season, three more than any other player on the team, and gave her a team-leading 42 RBIs on the season.

The Blue Devils coasted from there, allowing two runs in the top of the seventh when UNC needed at least four to extend the game.

The second game of the series starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Duke softball within top five in three major polls

After a series victory over Louisville and a 26-3 start to the season, few teams are higher than the Blue Devils in national rankings.

Few programs are in a better state right now than Duke softball.

Duke is within the top five in three national polls this week, with Softball America ranking the Blue Devils as the fourth-best team in the country.

The team is fifth in the USA TODAY Sports/NFCA Coaches Poll and the USA Softball rankings, and D1Softball slotted the Blue Devils in at sixth.

The Blue Devils dispatched Louisville in a three-game road series over the weekend, losing Saturday’s game in eight innings but taking the Friday and Sunday contests.

The wins moved Duke to 26-3 on the season with a 7-2 record in conference play, and national polls are confident the Blue Devils will make national noise come the postseason.

The Blue Devils, the consensus best team in the ACC, resume their season with a three-game series against Virginia Tech, the last team without a loss in conference play. The series starts on Thursday.

Duke softball wins road series over No. 16 Florida State

Duke softball lost its second game of the season on Saturday, but the Blue Devils still took two out of three from their ranked ACC foes.

Duke softball traveled to Tallahassee this weekend for its first ACC road trip of the 2024 season.

Despite the No. 6 Blue Devils suffering their first loss since the season opener, Duke still left with a series victory over the No. 16 Florida State.

The Blue Devils rode into town with a 20-game win streak and showed no signs of slowing down on Friday night.

Duke star pitcher Jala Wright got the start on the mound and continued her exceptional form to begin the 2024 season. She hadn’t allowed an earned run in her previous 26 innings when she tossed her first pitch of the weekend, and she retired her first nine batters of the opening game. She struck out the entire side in the second inning, and after a leadoff single ended her perfect game in the fourth, she retired the side with her fourth strikeout of the day to end the inning.

On the offensive end, senior left fielder Claire Davidson launched a two-run home run in the opening inning to claim an early lead. She drove in another run two innings later when she tripled into left field, giving Duke a 3-0 advantage.

Davidson came to the plate for the third time in the fifth inning with two runners on, and she again laced a single into the outfield for her fourth RBI of the afternoon. Second baseman Aminah Vega doubled home two more runs in the very next at-bat, and Duke led 7-0 after four innings.

Shortstop Jada Baker picked up two RBIs herself in the middle of the game, first with an RBI single in the fourth inning before a solo home run in the sixth stretched the lead to eight. A two-run double from Vega later ballooned the advantage to 10-0 as she, Baker, and Davidson drove in every Blue Devils run.

Florida State’s bats finally awoke in the bottom of the sixth, picking up four runs (including the first earned run on Wright in nearly a month) after a handful of singles and walks. However, the Seminoles couldn’t pull any closer than 10-5 before the final out was recorded.

The road rivals bounced back on Saturday, however, to hand Duke its first loss since the season opener. Duke’s star sophomore Cassidy Curd started the second game in the circle, but Florida State chased her after just two innings. After an opening flyout, the Seminoles laced together four straight hits in the first inning, including two doubles and a triple, for a 3-0 lead before the end of the opening frame.

The Blue Devils’ offense could never get off the ground in the second game of the weekend, with only one baserunner (an Ana Gold walk in the first) across the first four innings. Florida State added a fourth run in the third inning, and a sixth-inning Duke rally could only muster two runs.

With the series on the line on Sunday, however, the Blue Devils came through.

After a Florida State run in the opening frame, Francesca Frelick rocked around the tying run in the second with a sacrifice fly. One inning later, Vega and Amiah Burgess brought in another run each to stretch the advantage to 3-1.

Duke still led 5-3 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, but Florida State refused to let the series end early. With the tying run on third base with only one out, however, Duke gave Wright the ball again.

The star pitcher forced a groundout (albeit surrendering the tying run due to contact) and a flyout to force an extra inning.

As was the story on Friday, Claire Davidson played hero once again. The Blue Devils led by two after a double by slugger Ana Gold, but the senior outfielder launched another home run to break the game apart in extra innings.

Florida State couldn’t score a run in the bottom of the eighth, giving Duke the series win and improving the Blue Devils to 22-2 on the season.

The Blue Devils play UNC Wilmington in a home doubleheader on Wednesday.

Blue Devils softball remains a top-five team in the eyes of Softball America

After eight straight wins including multiple mercy-rule margins, the Blue Devils held on to the No. 5 spot in the Softball America rankings.

Duke softball remained a top-five team in the latest Softball America rankings released on Monday.

The Blue Devils have won eight straight games to reinforce the site’s preseason faith in them, now sitting at 8-1 on the year with four games decided by mercy rule in less than seven innings.

Oklahoma, who has won the past three national titles, remained No. 1 as the Sooners sit on every national ranking. Texas, Georgia, and Washington also came in above Duke in the rankings.

The rest of the Softball America top 10 includes LSU, Tennessee, Missouri, Clemson, and Stanford.

Duke played four games in the FIU Invitational over the weekend and swept them by a combined score of 26-1. The Blue Devils surrendered one run to Rutgers in the first game of the weekend before tossing three straight shutouts against FIU and Army.

Jala Wright, who was named ACC Pitcher of the Week after opening weekend, currently sports a 0.79 ERA through four appearances this season. She finished off a complete game one-hitter against Nebraska, and she has given up six hits against 19 strikeouts so far this season.

On the offensive side, junior Ana Gold leads the team with three home runs and 14 RBIs, the latter total matched by senior Claire Davidson and sophomore Aminah Vega.

Duke takes the field again in a home tournament this weekend, the Duke Invitational, beginning with a Friday game against Villanova.

Duke softball remains seventh in D1Softball rankings amid eight-game win streak

Despite eight straight wins in dominant fashion, the Blue Devils remained seventh in the D1Softball rankings released on Monday.

D1 Softball released its updated top 25 on Monday and Duke stayed put at seventh despite some scorching recent form.

The Blue Devils lost a defensive battle with consensus No. 1 Oklahoma in the season opener, but they have ripped off eight straight wins since. They scored 16 runs in five innings against Iowa State, 18 runs in five innings against North Dakota State, and allowed one run across four games over this past weekend in Miami.

Senior Claire Davidson, junior Ana Gold, and sophomore Aminah Vega share the team lead with 14 RBIs, powered by Gold’s team-leading three home runs.

Pitchers Sophie Garner-MacKinnon and Lillie Walker haven’t allowed an earned run in 16 combined innings, and Jala Wright has surrendered two in her 17.2 innings in the circle.

The Sooners still lead the D1Softball rankings with rival Texas close behind in second. Georgia, Washington, and Tennessee also made the top five, with LSU, the Blue Devils, Oklahoma State, Stanford, and Clemson rounding out the top 10.

Duke gets a chance at nine straight wins on Friday against Villanova, the start of the weekend’s Duke Invitational.

Duke softball needs only five innings against Army behind near-perfect pitching

Another monster game from Claire Davidson at the plate and dominant pitching from Sophie Garner-MacKinnon powered Duke to its seventh straight win.

The Duke softball team won its third game of the weekend on Saturday morning, needing only five innings to put Army away by a score of 8-0.

The Blue Devils, who have now won seven straight games, were kickstarted by senior Claire Davidson at the plate once again. After two walks to begin the morning game, the left fielder pushed a base hit through into the outfield to bring both runners home.

With Duke’s lead still two runs in the bottom of the third and a runner on first, Davidson launched her second home run of the year over the left field wall to make it a 4-0 ballgame.

Davidson’s four RBIs on Saturday morning brought her season total to 12, the second-highest of anyone on the team (Ana Gold – 13). Through eight games this season, the outfielder is batting .440 and leads the Blue Devils with five extra-base hits.

The Blue Devils plated three more runs in the bottom of the third to stretch their lead to seven, thanks to RBI singles from Gisele Tapia, Kelsey Zampa, and D’Auna Jennings.

If you’re noticing that Duke’s leading margin was the same as the number of runs that Duke scored, that’d be because Army couldn’t generate any offensive momentum.

Sophomore Sophie Garner-MacKinnon got the game started in the circle and stayed there for the entire five-inning game, allowing two hits and two walks but zero runs. She only struck out one Army batter, but she routinely forced easy defensive plays to keep the offense silent.

The Black Knights managed to get two runners on base in the opening inning thanks to a walk and a single, but Garner-MacKinnon forced a pop-up to strand them aboard. After a one-out double in the second, she coaxed two fly-outs into the outfield.

The next two innings were routine, three batters up and three batters down. Suddenly, after another run from the Duke offense in the bottom of the fourth courtesy of a Francesca Frelick home run, Army came to bat in the top of the fifth with the game on the line.

Only one runner reached base that inning after Garner MacKinnon surrendered a walk with two outs. The following pitch resulted in a ground ball to end the game.

The Blue Devils, now 7-1 for the season, get a second crack at the Black Knights on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET, their fourth game in two days.