The Chicago Bandits went into Smith Family Stadium on Thursday and came out with the series sweep of the Carolina Blaze, powered by a historic night from Skylar Wallace, who became the first player in AUSL history to hit three home runs in a game.
“No, I don’t think I’ve done this,” Wallace told Southeastern Softball Wire afterward. “The only other time I’ve hit three homers in a game was against Georgia. And again, things just clicked. That’s how the game goes. You can also go 0 for 10 sometimes, and right now it’s just working in my favor. I think a lot of it goes to having a good mindset, doing things the right way and preparing in a way to make me successful on the field.”
Wallace finished the series 9-for-10 with 4 HR, 9 RBIs and 7 runs scored. The Bandits got out to a hot first inning and kept the fire the rest of the way.
Wallace led off with a single up the middle to extend her on-base streak to 23 games. She came right home on a Sami Williams RBI double to take a 1-0 lead. Mac Barbara got down in the count 0-2, broke her bat and then ripped an RBI single to bring Williams home.
Keilani Ricketts had a tough time deceiving hitters. Even Mary Iakopo, who made the first out, took 11 pitches. The Bandits went on to extend the lead to 3-0 with a Jocelyn Erickson RBI fielder’s choice to wrap up the first-inning three-spot. Ricketts threw 29 pitches in the opening frame.
Lexi Kilfoyl took the circle for Chicago and ran into immediate trouble. Dakota Kennedy led off with a double, and Reese Atwood followed with her eighth home run of the season to cut the Bandits’ lead to 3-2. Atwood was back in the lineup after missing game one for the ESPYS.
Wallace remained a difficult bat, and in the top of the second inning she connected on an 0-2 pitch for a one-out, two-run home run to make it 5-2 Bandits. Then with two outs, Morgan Zerkle, Iakopo and Erickson kept the inning going with three consecutive RBI hits to make it 8-2.
Chicago is just a tough team to get out. It didn’t matter where Ricketts put the ball; they made contact. The Blaze went to Ruby Meylan after Ricketts gave up 8 runs on 8 hits in 1.2 innings pitched. Meylan got out of the inning without further damage.
“I think in that moment, they were putting a barrel on a lot of her stuff,” Dill said on Ricketts. “And she had thrown quite a bit yesterday, a little bit more than they intended for yesterday. So, she just had a lot of looks against that offense, it’s really what it came down to.”
The Blaze didn’t make it easy on Kilfoyl. Jenna Laird got on with a leadoff single in the bottom half of the second. Then with one out, Ana Gold cleared the bases with a two-run homer to left field. After Kilfoyl issued a walk to Aubrey Leach, coach Shonda Stanton went to Odicci Alexander-Bennett out of the bullpen. Then, Kennedy greeted her with a two-run home run to make it 8-6 Chicago.
The offensive output was a welcome sight after weeks of struggling to score. The Blaze kept swinging and getting on. Atwood and Valerie Cagle singled in the inning also, but no more runs were scored.
“We are running the extremes right now,” Blaze head coach Kara Dill said on the output. “But I think in that, you see that we can do both sides. It’s just putting those two things together at once. We have the personnel to score a ton of runs. We have the personnel to shut down the other team’s offense. So when we’re able to put those two things together, we’ll be tough to beat.”
Meylan had no luck quieting down the Bandits. After a Taryn Kern walk and Ailana Agbayani single, Wallace smashed her third home run of the series in the third to make the score 11-6. Wallace is in a massive zone.
The Bandits went to Taylor McQuillin with two on and two outs in the bottom of the third, and the Blaze ended with a chance to score in a bases-loaded, two-out situation but came up empty. Chicago added three runs in the top of the fourth with three consecutive RBI doubles from Kern, Agbayani and Wallace to bring their total to 14 runs. Wallace appeared to have scored the 15th run, but a challenge showed that she missed third base and was called out.
Klinger and Cagle led off with back-to-back singles in the bottom half, and the Blaze pushed across a run on an Alyssa Brito sacrifice fly, scoring Klingler and keeping the run-rule threat at bay for the moment.
Emma Lemley took the ball in the fifth and put Mac Barbara on via a hit by pitch. However, she recorded a zero on the board for the first time all night. Lemley also struck out Erickson during the inning. Ahead in the sixth, Lemley got a quick two outs but ran into Wallace, who hit her third home run of the night and fourth of the series.
That made the score 15-7 Bandits, and McQuillin returned to the circle to close out the game in six innings. With the win, the Bandits moved ahead of the Utah Talons for first-place in the AUSL. Bandits head coach Shonda Stanton has the best seat in the house, in witnessing what this team is doing.
“Yeah, I think when you come off the collegiate game, you’ll always feel a little bit of like, oh, we’ve got to wait again until February,” Stanton said. “And look what I get to do. There’s nothing like game day. There’s nothing like watching these people perfect their craft. They are, I say it all the time, boss women. They’re really good at what they do. And so when you’re competent, when you care, when you’re connected, something special can happen. And that’s what we’re seeing out of this group. So I’m really proud to be able to have a front row seat to that. I get to be in the third base box, just waving them on, staying out of their way and letting them do their thing.”
