Duke sweeps Arizona softball, winning Durham Regional and ending Wildcats' season

As a result, the Wildcats couldn’t get out of a regional for the second straight year.

After winning its first two games to advance to the final of the Durham Regional, Arizona couldn’t keep host Duke in the ballpark. The Blue Devils mashed their way to a sweep Sunday, winning the regional and sending the Wildcats home.

Duke won the first game — which featured six lead changes — 8-6. The Blue Devils won the winner-take-all finale 9-4 at Smith Family Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

“I want to congratulate Duke on a hard-fought day,” UA coach Caitlin Lowe told reporters afterward. “We knew going into today, it was going to be about gritty performances and executing good softball. They were able to play pretty perfectly defensively and get the timely hit when it mattered early.

"I thought coming back in that second game, man, we were inches from a whole lot of things. That's what we're going to have to work for in the offseason. But just credit to them on being gritty all day.”

Arizona’s last Super Regional appearance came in 2024, when the Wildcats won the Fayetteville Regional before being swept by Oklahoma State. The Wildcats lost in a deciding seventh game last year at home vs. Ole Miss and suffered the same fate Sunday at Duke.

Arizona appeared to have momentum back on its side after trimming a 3-0 deficit to 3-2 with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning. But Duke responded with four in the bottom half — including two on a play that nearly went the Wildcats’ way.

With D’Auna Jennings on first base, Aminah Vega hit a deep flyball to left-center field. UA center fielder Regan Shockey leaped for the ball and momentarily had it in her glove. But the force of crashing into the wall knocked the ball out. Instead of a highlight-reel robbery, it was a two-run homer for Vega and a 5-2 lead for Duke.

Shockey was injured on the play and had to leave the game. The Blue Devils added two more runs in the inning on a two-run homer by Layla Lamar.

Jennings and Vega proved to be a destructive combo atop the Duke lineup. Jennings went 6 for 7 with a home run, a double and six runs scored Sunday. Vega went 4 for 7 with two home runs, a double and seven RBIs.

Meanwhile, Duke kept UA star senior Sydney Stewart in check. The Big 12 Player of the Year went 0 for 7 with a walk in Sunday’s games.

“It’s crazy that it's over with, but I'm gonna have these memories, these moments for the rest of my life,” said Stewart, who will play for Portland of the AUSL this summer. “It's honestly a blessing to be able to wear this jersey and be with the people that I have around me.

“Some people don't get it like this. I'm really blessed to be able to be a part of this program, just the culture and the tradition and the people.”

Duke hit four home runs in each game Sunday and 17 across five games in the regional. The only game in which the Blue Devils didn’t hit a home run was Saturday’s 10-1 loss to Arizona.

Game 1 on Sunday was tied 6-6 entering the sixth inning. With runners on second and third with two outs, Vega hit a grounder up the middle. UA shortstop Tayler Biehl made a diving stop on the second-base side of the bag. She threw to first from her knees to try to get Vega out. The throw sailed over first baseman Kiki Escobar’s head.

Vega was awarded an infield single. Both runners scored.

Biehl, a four-year Wildcat, reflected on her time at Arizona during postgame interviews.

“It's meant everything,” Biehl said. “Just pouring into this program has been the best. I've been a Wildcat fan since I was little. So being able to live out this dream and be able to hold the lessons that I learned as a softball player here at the university, and just the people and the connections I made, just take that on to the next level and the next chapter of my life.

“I'm just really proud to be a Wildcat — everything we've accomplished and just the relationships and the character-building moments that I've been able to have.”

Shockey reached base via a bunt single to lead off the bottom of the sixth but was stranded. Arizona went down 1-2-3 in the seventh.

Shockey earlier injured her left arm on a head-first slide into second base. She remained in the game but was pinch-hit for in her next at-bat. Shockey re-entered as a pinch-runner and was able to get the bunt down in the sixth.

“With a beat-up body, she throws herself into a wall,” Lowe said. “I think you saw that with 19 people on the field today, just throwing everything we had at it.

“The grittiness, it comes from her. But then I think you see it come from the rest of the team, too.”

Duke, the No. 12 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, heads to Fayetteville to face No. 5 seed Arkansas in a Super Regional. The Razorbacks’ lineup features former UA standout Dakota Kennedy, one of two starting outfielders who transferred last offseason. Kaiah Altmeyer transferred to Texas, which will host Arizona State in another Super series.

The Big 12 represents a quarter of the Super Regional field. In addition to ASU, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and UCF also advanced.

With seniors Stewart, Biehl and Grace Jenkins — who had two homers and six RBIs in Friday’s 7-5 win over Marshall — beside her, Lowe praised their efforts on and off the field amid a year full of turnover.

“I can't say enough about the culture they decided to build in the summer, because we had half a new team,” Lowe said. “They took it upon themselves to absolutely get after the locker room and what they wanted it to look like this year.

“In a year where nobody in the country knew what to do with us or where to rank us or what we were going to look like, they wrote their own story. It didn't end the way they wanted it to. But the foundation is built, and I think that's the most important thing.”