Blue Devils Fall in ACC Semifinals

Friday, May 9

Brighton, Mass.

10 a.m.

Duke University

38-16

Florida State

46-8

Duke

Florida State

Dani Drogemuller throws a pitch during the ACC Softball Championship in a black uniform.

Photo by: ACC Photography

Blue Devils Fall in ACC Semifinals

5/9/2025 12:08:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

BRIGHTON, Mass. – Fourth-seeded Duke saw its run at the ACC Softball Championship come to an end Friday morning at the Harrington Athletics Village with a 3-2 setback to top-seed Florida State.

The Blue Devils (38-16) took a 1-0 lead in the third, but the Seminoles (46-8) immediately scored twice and added an insurance run in the sixth. Duke got a run back in the seventh but could not even the score.

Six Blue Devils tallied singles as the Seminole pitching effort held down the Duke offense. Both of Duke's runs were unearned. Julia Apsel went the first 2.2 innings for Florida State in the circle before handing off to Jazzy Francik (10-2) for the next 4.0 frames. Ashtyn Danley came in to record the final out and her fourth save of the campaign. Apsel and Francik combined to yield six hits and fan six without surrendering a walk or hit batter.

In the circle for the Blue Devils, graduate student Dani Drogemuller (17-8) went the distance, allowing just five hits in 6.0 innings. She struck out four and walked one while surrendering three runs, two earned.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke made the first dent on the scoreboard to take a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the top of the third. With two outs, junior Aminah Vega singled up the middle and scored one batter later on an error by the FSU second baseman.
The Seminoles answered immediately in the bottom of the frame and took a 2-1 lead. After a leadoff double and bunt single put runners on the corners with no outs, a Duke error allowed the tying run to come home. A groundout followed and brought home the go-ahead run. Drogemuller avoided further damage with consecutive groundouts.
Florida State added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff homer from Michaela Edenfield.
FSU limited Duke's offense to just one hit in the fourth, fifth and sixth, a two-out single from graduate student Thessa Malau'ulu in the fifth.
Duke brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the seventh with a two-out rally. After a fly out and strikeout started the frame, consecutive singles from freshman Brooklinn Thomas and junior D'Auna Jennings brought up Malau'ulu, who reached on a fielding error by the FSU shortstop to allow Thomas to score and make it a 3-2 contest.
A fly out ended the contest.

NOTES

Duke dipped to 10-5 in the ACC Softball Championship.
The Blue Devils were held without an extra-base hit for the first time since March 23, against FSU.
With her single in the seventh, Jennings extended her hitting streak to eight games, the longest active streak on the team.
Malau'ulu's single in the fifth pushed her reaching base streak to 21 games, the longest active streak on the team.
Vega and Thomas scored at least one run in each of Duke's ACC Softball Championship games.
Vega has scored at least one in each of Duke's last seven games, dating back to the Notre Dame tilt on April 19.
Drogemuller went all 13.0 innings in the circle for Duke at the ACC Softball Championship and allowed just nine hits and two earned runs while striking out seven.
Since April started, Drogemuller has tossed 63.1 innings.

UP NEXT
Duke will learn its NCAA Tournament destination on Sunday. The selection show is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

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