Duke wins ACC Softball Tournament with 6-3 comeback victory over Florida State
Duke softball is headed to the NCAA tournament and are the 2024 ACC tournament champions after a 6-3 come-from-behind win over defending champion Florida State on Saturday.
And as the No. 1 overall seed, Duke completed a double-league championship, winning the regular season crown and the conference tournament. It’s the second ACC tournament championship for the Blue Devils.
“We started to make jokes that this team doesn’t decide to score until the other team does first and they’re just relentless,” head coach Marissa Young said on ESPN postgame. “They love to compete. We’re never out of it as long as we have outs on that board and they believe it from the top to the bottom, and they just find a way to get things done.”
The No. 2 seed Seminoles will likely make the NCAA field as an at-large team.
Both teams were scoreless through three innings until the Seminoles plated a trio of runs in the top of the 4th inning. Kalei Harding hit a two-run home run and was followed up by an RBI double from Michaela Edenfield. Duke responded quickly with a pair of runs in the bottom of the 4th inning, coming via a sacrifice fly and an RBI single.
The one-run margin held for Florida State until the bottom of the sixth, when pitcher Ashtyn Danley loaded the bases with one out. From there, Duke plated four runs and batted through the order while stringing together singles, a fielders choice and a throwing error. That error proved costly, as it allowed the go-ahead run to score.
It gave the top seed a three run margin as the defending champs came up with just three outs left to try and even the score.
All relief pitcher Cassidy Curd needed to do was find three outs, which she did in short order, including knocking down a line drive and firing it to first to the final out.
“Both of them have really continued to get better as the season goes on,” Young said of her pitching duo of Curd and Saturday’s starter, Jala Wright. “It’s a constant chess match with other opponents figuring out what they’re going to do against them and I told them all year long, it’s never a loss, it’s a lesson. And Cass has really learned how to get people to chase and expand the zone and man, she was just lights out today.
It was an emotional win for Young
Young might as well have been there for an audience of one on Saturday: Her husband, James Lamar.
For around a year, Lamar has been dealing with an unspecified medical issues with his heart and cardiovascular system, and one that has required countless surgeries and procedures. He spent a portion of last spring and early summer on a ventilator before his condition improved.
And Saturday, he got to watch Duke come back for a 6-3 win over defending champion Florida State to lock up an NCAA tournament bid in his first game in person all season.
“Incredible,” Young said on the ESPN broadcast, her voice tinged with emotion. “His first game of the season that he’s been able to get out of the house and come and obviously to win a championship at home in front of the largest crowd ever is just a dream come true.”
Plus a home field celebration meant that Lamar would also be there to see the new ACC champions marker on the outfield wall that was unveiled shortly after the Blue Devils won the conference tournament.
After winning the regular season title, the program was always going to put some acknowledgement up, and now it’s ironclad as Duke won the pair of ACC titles available in 2024.
“Well we put it up for regular season,” Young said. “We knew we still had work to do for tournament champs, but that was for our regular season championship.”