South Carolina continued its blistering start to the 2025 college softball season, completing the three-game sweep over No. 9 Duke on Sunday afternoon with a 12-7 win, improving to 19-0.
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It looked as though the Blue Devils were going to salvage a win in the series after jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but eight unanswered runs from the Gamecocks over the second and third innings put Duke in a hole it couldn't dig out of.
Gamecocks first baseman Arianna Rodi shined again, connecting on her eighth homer of the season and finishing the day 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs. The Duke pitching staff had no answer for Rodi all series as the junior returns to Columbia with nine more RBIs and three more home runs after a trip to Durham.
T3 | 🤯🤯 @RodiArianna
— Gamecock Softball (@GamecockSoftbll) March 2, 2025
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Sam Gress earned the win in relief after going four innings with three earned runs and five strikeouts. The Blue Devils were unable to break the game open, leaving seven on base in Sunday's loss and 21 in total in the three-game sweep.
Duke now falls to 14-6 early in its 2025 campaign after finishing 2024 with just nine losses. The Blue Devils have a stand-alone matchup with Elon on Tuesday before kicking off their first ACC series against Clemson this weekend.
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