Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Duke softball beat Army by a score of 8-0 on Saturday.
The second game of the doubleheader against the Black Knights ended the exact same way as the first one, with the Blue Devils cruising to an eight-run victory.
Junior Ana Gold got the game started with a solo home run in Duke’s second at-bat, her team-leading third of the season and the 32nd home run of her Blue Devils career.
Senior Kelly Torres doubled home another run in the first, but it was sophomore Aminah Vega who truly stole the show at the plate. After a groundout in the first inning, Vega notched her first RBI of the day with a single in the bottom of the third.
The second baseman kept the momentum rolling with another RBI in the following inning, this time a double that brought Claire Davidson around to score. Vega capped off the stellar game with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth, a walk-off shot that gave the Blue Devils the eighth run they needed to invoke the mercy rule.
Vega’s three-RBI day tied her with Gold and Davidson for the team lead with 14 on the season, and the sophomore is also third on the team in batting average (.433) through the first nine games of the season.
Davidson got some impressive work in herself at the plate against the Black Knights, bringing two teammates home to score with a fourth-inning double that highlighted a two-for-two day at the plate (she was hit by a pitch in her second at-bat).
In the circle, Dani Drogemuller got all six innings of work for the Blue Devils, and with her form on Saturday, there was never any need to consider another option.
Drogemuller retired the first four batters she faced on Saturday, allowing a one-out double in the second inning, and then retired five of the next six batters she faced (one Black Knight reached on an error in the third).
A leadoff single for Army proved to be its last hit of the day as Drogemuller picked through the last three innings with ease. The Illinois native finished the six-inning game with two hits, a walk, and three strikeouts, and the Black Knights never came close to scoring a run.
After allowing three runs in 2.1 innings against Iowa State during the opening weekend, Drogemuller has been on an absolute heater. She’s pitched 11 innings across her last three outings, and she’s surrendered a combined four hits and three walks without a single run over that time frame.
With Vega’s solo shot in the sixth cementing victory, the Blue Devils improved to 8-1 on the young season. Duke plays its fifth and final game of the weekend on Sunday against FIU, whom the Blue Devils beat 6-0 on Friday.