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.