In the NCAA Softball Tournament, Marissa Young has built Duke into a consistent winner

Durham, NC – There are university teams that have legs for decades that do not play in a stage that presents the decorations that Duke has.

It is not an elegant press box, a comfortable seat, a great video board or state -of -the -art comforts, it is what the Blue Devils have adorning their field walls. It is a list of programs achievements: seven All-America, two championships of the Atlantic coast conference, five appearances in the NCAA tournament and a trip to the World Series College in Oklahoma City, which occurs last year.

Here is the remarkable note about these achievements: Duke’s softball program has only existed for eight years.

Comparing it with some of their peers at the ACC, which the Blue Devils have captured in less than a decade is surprising. Georgia Tech has been playing softball since 1987 and has never been in a university world series. The same goes for NC State, which began its program in 2004 and has the same number of postseason bunk beds as Duke. Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, Virginia, Notre Dame and North Carolina have never advanced to a regional super, something that Duke has made in three consecutive seasons.

This more succinctly, the Blue Devils have established themselves as one of the main Softball programs of ACCS and are a growing power in a sport that is growing by leaps and bounds in popularity. Last season, 2.5 million people tune in the final of the University World Series, marking an increase of 24 percent year after year and make it the most seen.

Duke is trying to return to that stage and bruise his trip there on Friday, flexing his muscles and showing his balance of offensive power and defensive skill in a 12-0 victory over Howard, the champions of the Mid-Easte Athletic Conference.

“I love that our team continues to improve at the end of the year and play our best softball,” said Duke coach Marissa Young, the program architect, after victory. “I think it was a great statement to come and master the way we did.”

Zurdo Junior Cassidy Curd launcher threw two batters with six strikeouts in five tickets, while the senior campocorto Ana Gold slapped two home runs on the fence, driving in five races.

“One of the things I talked a lot about with coach Young in which they entered today was that the rest of the things that happened during the season did not matter,” said Curd. “Just enter there and remember who I am and what I can do, and trust all the work and preparation in which I am.”

It is this equity and harmony of precise pitching, strong defense and an opportunistic offensive that is anxious to take advantage of the errors of the opposite team what Duke makes one of the best teams in the NCAA tournament this year. The Blue Devils are located in the Top 25 National on average batting (.332), percentage of Philage (.974), bleached (14), Ponches-Caminata ratio (2.60) and total blows (487).

Duke sowed 14th in this NCAA tournament and also organizes the coast of Sun Belt Champions Carolina and SEC Power Georgia in its regional capsule. It is the fourth time that Duke has organized the duration of the Games the first weekend of the Softball Postemporada. The Blue Devils will face Georgia in their second regional game on Saturday afternoon.

Mitchell Northam / Sb Nation

To try to win an advantage in Duke, Howard Tori Tyson coach has just deployed an unorthodox tactic turning in multiple pitchers at each entrance. Exactly it did not work when the Blue Devils accumulated nine hits and four walks. Against Tyson’s pitchers from the Blue Devils, they only lost their brands too many times.

“With Duke, and much of the lower half of the country, if you throw an error, it will not be a blow of Bloop. He will go to a different continent,” Tyson said. “You don’t recover that launch. We knew it. There. There. There. There. Little room for mistake … They did exactly what we knew they would do. They will balance on strikes and will take advantage of the medium.

Tyson said he has been deploying this strategy for a few weeks and that he helped boost the bison through the rest of the regular season, where they had a 20-1 brand in Meac Play and won their third conference title. Young was impressed by Tyson’s audacity to prove the scheme, congratulating its “Chess Party” strategy.

A former outstanding pitcher in Nebraska who grew up watching Young Pitch at Big Ten in Michigan, Tyson was proud to share the field with Duke’s coach.

“I have this moment when you are shaking hands and you are sharing the field with women, as special color women who have meant a lot to me and a perfect representation for me,” Tyson said. “Seeing her battle through the edge of a black woman and a black mother, man, it’s everything. Now I am in a home that literally builds. Bringing my team here is like a storybook for me and just a blessing. It means everything.” It means everything. “It means everything.” It means everything. “It means everything.

Mitchell Northam / Sb Nation

After working as an assistant at Eastern Michigan and North Carolina, and before those stops as a chief coach in the team of Naia Concordia, Young was used by the former director of Athletics of Duke, Kevin White, to build the softball program of the Blue Devils from the ground in 2016 Administration wanted to return to the track with compliance. One way to do it was to add women’s sports, what Duke did in 2013, announcing the next incorporation of softball and also increasing slot machines for other women’s sports.

Young, a former Big Ten pitcher and player of the year with the Wolverines, led his first Duke softball team to the field in 2018. For some new programs, the road to success can be long and hard, but Duke had a 1311 .500 general record. In 2020, the Blue Devils began the season with 23-4 before it was canceled due to the pandemic. But the following year, Young kept Duke Rodando and appeared in the NCAA tournament for the first time, starting a streak of five consecutive positions that have not been played without Duke in him.

“I think we are very proud of our defense, and as much as the girls because to get there and hit the home run, they want to make ESPN play behind his pitchers,” said Young. “I think it really shows the love you have to each other. They reproduce each other.”

Gold, a 5 -foot and 7 -inch native of Ballston Spa, New York, arrived at the campus next fall and has been a crucial ingredient to help Duke take measures to maintain success and build a winning softball culture. When he finishes his last year, he will leave the program as the Blue Devils race leader in homers. Now it has 53, and aims to add some more to that total before the Duke season comes to an end.

“I think it’s just a will to train Young and the program and culture he is building, and girls really buy it. It’s huge,” Gold said. “I just hope you continue building.”

Curd arrived in Duke a year after gold, from the heels of the Blue Devils advancing to his first regional super. She has also been a key part of Duke’s accumulation as one of the recognizable brands of university softball, accumulating a 45-14 record in three seasons with an effectiveness of 2.15. Against Howard, he had a game without hits in the fifth entrance before the bison was annulled a couple of singles in the painting.

Last season, the native of Port Lucie, Florida, led the ACCO and won the two victories of Duke of the Circle in Missouri, helping the Blue Devils to hit their ticket to the World Series in Oklahoma City. This year, Curd is the second in the agreements in strikeouts with 138.

“We have that experience now. It’s not our first rodeo,” said Curd. “Our main objective is to continue fun, play our game, and it doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the field, just present each other.”

Mitchell Northam / Sb Nation

It has the entire leg easy for Young and Duke’s thinking, especially off the field. In May 2023, her husband James Lamar suffered a heart attack while the Blue Devils competed in the Super Regional. After being put on life support and a fan, more than two box surgeries, including heart and kidney transplants, survived, but its recovery still continues.

In recent years, Young has not only been a transforming coach for Duke, she has been an important caregiver of her family. It makes what he has achieved with the Blue Devils is so exceptional.

“I think we have always had an idea of ​​how important our central values ​​are to establish the base, and then it comes out in motion. And it doesn’t matter what the success or travel hash, we have never hesitated those things,” said Young. “Our coaching staff does incredible job when working very hard and preparing them for success. But ultimately, it is the players who come out and believe in how we prepare the subject.”

In Durham on Friday, he was wet and sticky with temperatures in the 80s. But Young dressed for a cool and windy day with a long -sleeved zipper jacket. The Heat is not distinguished, without distracted by any external circumstance, and trained his team for a print victory to open the postseason.

“You have to look good to play well,” he said with a smile, borrowing the phrase popularized by Deion Sanders. “This has been an adjustment of luck, and we will continue with that.”

Young hopes to wear that same outfit in June in Oklahoma City at the College World Series.

Getting to that stage of the tournament is no longer an irratible dream for the Blue Devils. They have the leg there and the goal is to return, and Young has instilled a deep belief in their players that it is not only possible, but it can really be achieved. Eight years after its history as a program, Duke Softball now has the expectation of continuing to play deeply in the postseason.