Beating UNC never gets old.
After taking two of the three during the regular season, Duke squared off with its bitter North Carolina rivals again in the quarterfinals of the ACC Softball Tournament on Thursday. The Blue Devils earned a bye after finishing No. 2 in the league standings, while UNC finished 10th but pulled off a mini-upset over 7-seeded Clemson to earn the matchup against Duke.
Things didn't start out great for Duke, and it was a back-and-forth affair until Duke totally overwhelmed UNC with an offensive explosion.
A big 6th inning catapults Duke to a run-rule win over North Carolina
UNC took an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning, but Duke answered with a four-spot in the 2nd. Adelyn Matthews hit an RBI single to cut the lead to one, and then Jessica Oakland smacked a bases-loaded double that scored three and gave Duke a 4-2 lead.
UNC trimmed the lead to one in the 3rd, and then re-took the lead with a five-run 4th inning that saw the Blue Devils trailing 8-4.
And then the avalanche happened.
Duke quickly grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the 4th with six runs. None of the damage came from home runs, just one clutch hit after another. RBI knocks by Oakland, Tyrina Jones, Layla Lamar, KK Matthews, and Adelyn Matthews in quick succession pushed Duke ahead 10-8.
In the 6th, Duke didn't leave anything up to chance. They poured in six runs to force a run-rule and knock the Tar Heels out of the ACC Tournament. A Jayla Stafford RBI single got it started, and then Mathis put the bow on the Blue Devils' win that brought home Aminah Vega to polish off the 16-8 Duke win.
Marissa Young's club piled up 20 hits to net the 16 runs. Only four were for extra bases (3 doubles, 1 triple), with Duke battering North Carolina with a barrage of singles. It was death by a million paper cuts for the Heels in Charlottesville.
The win catapults Duke into the ACC semifinals on Friday at 3:30 pm ET. They'll play the winner of Virginia-Virginia Tech.
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