Missouri Defeats No. 22 Duke, 5-4, Sunday

Sunday, February 15

Clearwater, Fla.

9 a.m.

Duke University

7-2

Missouri

3-7

Missouri

Duke

Cassidy Curd pitching vs. LSU at Clearwater

Missouri Defeats No. 22 Duke, 5-4, Sunday

2/15/2026 6:48:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

CLEARWATER, Fla. – No. 22 Duke dropped a 5-4 battle to Missouri in the final game of the Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational Sunday. The Blue Devils finished 3-2 on the weekend, including a pair of top-15 wins over No. 8 Texas A&M and No. 12 LSU.

Senior Aminah Vega led the way at the plate, finishing 11-for-17 (.647) on the weekend with four RBI and nine runs scored. Redshirt junior Jessica Oakland and graduate student Tyrina Jones also played a major role on offense, batting 5-for-11(.455) and 6-for-15 (.400), respectively. The duo combined to drive in 13 of Duke's 27 total runs through the five games.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Blue Devils struck first, plating three quick runs in the bottom of the first. Vega opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly to left field to bring in classmate D'Auna Jennings after she reached on an infield single and moved to third on a Tigers' throwing error. Oakland's two-run blast out of center field brought in Jones, who reached on a triple to right center field, and put Duke in front, 3-0.
Sophomore Layla Lamar sent out her second home run of the weekend in the bottom of the second, extending the Blue Devils' edge to 4-0.
Missouri started to gain momentum in the top of the fourth, using back-to-back walks, a double and a sacrifice fly to cut into the gap, 4-2.
The Tigers took advantage of a wild pitch in the fifth to push another run across the plate and pull within one.
Missouri's Madison Uptegrove sent the go-ahead two-RBI double deep into the left center field gap to give the Tigers a 5-4 advantage.
Duke battled until its last out as senior KK Mathis drew a two-out walk to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh but the Tigers secured the final out with an infield pop out, leaving the game-winning runs stranded.

NOTES

The Blue Devils move to 7-3 overall on the year.
Oakland recorded the 35th home run of her career and first as a Blue Devil in the opening frame.
Lamar blasted her second career home run in the bottom of the second.
Senior Cassidy Curd earned her second start of the weekend, working the first 4.2 innings and surrendering three runs off two hits.
Redshirt Freshman Ava Bradshaw was tagged with her first loss of the year after 2.0 innings of relief. She moves her record to 1-1 in the circle.
Junior Larissa Jacquez made her third appearance of the weekend, entering in the top of the seventh inning to face the final two batters.

UP NEXT
The Blue Devils travel to Elon for a single non-conference matchup with the Phoenix Tuesday afternoon. First pitch is set for 4 p.m., at Hunt Softball Park and will be streamed live on FloCollege.

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