Duke softball pitcher Cassidy Curd had the type of weekend that changes a program in Columbia over the last three days.
For the first time in school history, the Blue Devils punched their ticket to the Women’s College World Series after a 4-3 extra-inning over Missouri on the road.
Curd, a sophomore, recorded all but two of Duke’s outs for the day. She tossed eight scoreless innings to start the game, allowing only three hits and striking out seven batters in one of the year’s most intense pitching duels. Mizzou starter Laurin Krings left Curd with zero margin for error, blanking Duke for eight innings.
With Duke on the road, Curd twice faced a do-or-die inning. If Missouri scored in either the seventh or the eighth innings, that’s it. Game over. Season over.
Instead, Curd didn’t blink. She retired six out of seven batters in that stretch, striking out the final Tigers batter of the seventh inning to force extras.
It wasn’t until the offense gave Curd room to breathe that she finally slowed down. Starting the ninth inning with a 4-0 lead and a pitch count nearing triple-digits, she coughed up two singles before surrendering the mound to reliever Lillie Walker. When the Tigers mashed a three-run homer, however, Curd retired to record the final out.
Curd didn’t just save the Sunday game. During the opening game on Friday, she took over for ACC Pitcher of the Year Jala Wright in the bottom of the second inning with the game tied at three runs apiece and two runners on board.
The second-year slinger forced a simple pop-out to end the frame and didn’t allow a hit over the rest of the game. She walked one batter, hit another with a pitch, and a third reached on an error. That was it. Across five innings. She struck out eight of the 17 batters who approached the plate.
The Duke offense finally gained some insurance in the fifth and seventh innings, winning 6-3, but the Blue Devils were on their back foot early. Curd didn’t give Missouri another inch.
Across three appearances for the weekend, Curd finished with two earned runs, seven hits allowed, and 16 strikeouts in 17.1 innings.
The Columbia Super Regional itself was only 23 innings long, and Missouri scored five of its seven runs in the 5.2 that Curd didn’t pitch.
Don’t be mistaken, Duke advanced to the Women’s College World Series for many reasons and because of many other players. Sophomore centerfielder D’Auna Jennings hit her second career home run to give the Blue Devils the lead on Sunday. Wright and ACC Player of the Year Claire Davidson took turns wearing the cape during the season, and Duke won by a walk-off twice in the conference tournament. There are flowers to go around.
This weekend in Columbia represented something new for the program, however. The Blue Devils had bumped their heads on the Super Regional ceiling twice in a row, and while a trip to Oklahoma City seemed like a matter of time, a third straight heartbreak would be brutal. After fans already felt the NCAA selection committee underrated head coach Marissa Young’s team as the 10th seed this year, there’s a hypothetical future when the Tigers won and the pressure only mounted to prove Duke belonged in the upper echelon of the sport.
Instead, Duke advanced by the narrowest of margins, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a player more responsible for that breakthrough than Curd.