The Portland Cascade are one win from reaching the Athletes Unlimited Softball League championship series as an expansion team. But first, they must defeat the Chicago Bandits on Thursday night at Davis Diamond in College Station, Texas.
It was a nerve-racking situation for the Cascade to get this chance. Flowers and the team took in the overnight weather-delayed Blaze-Spark finale as a group. Of course, they took proud ownership of being the biggest Blaze fans on the planet.
“I loved all the social media of… we probably were the biggest Blaze fans at the moment, but definitely, everything that we’ve done all summer, we’ve done it together,” Flowers said. “And it was some ups and downs, and when we went into that rain delay, definitely, kept the suspense alive, but… excited as soon as the final out was made.
“We knew we had a moment to be able to keep continuing to play together, and I think that’s what this team is looking forward to the most, is just being together at least one more time on the field, and hopefully we’ll keep it going.”
Portland comes in as the No. 3 seed with a record of 14-11 and has met the Bandits (No. 2, 16-9) five times already. In those meetings, Chicago bested them four times, with two occasions ending in run-rule fashion. Additionally, the last series was much closer. Each game was decided by one or two runs and the Cascade held on for a 5-4 win in the final meeting.
Cascade head coach Tairia Flowers spoke with the media Wednesday, and Portland is going into Thursday focused and loose. It’s a bit of a reset, but they also know what’s at stake and there is no tomorrow.
“You can’t make the moment too big, but you can’t wait too long to make something happen,” Flowers said. “I mean, it’s one shot, and you gotta go, so it’s a little bit of everything of don’t make it too big of a moment. It’s still 60 feet, turn left, but we have to start clicking on all cylinders from the start of the game.
“So, gotta come out swinging, being aggressive, attack the strike zone, do everything that we know how to do well, but what the results were in our last Bandits games doesn’t matter right now. It is what it is. It’s one game, let’s get after it and make it happen.”
The Cascade will have to keep this Bandits offense under control. Chicago is the best-hitting team in the league, with Skylar Wallace and Sami Williams leading the AUSL with batting averages of .500 and .427, respectively. The Bandits are the only team in the league with a team batting average over .300. Moreover, they average just under six runs a game at 5.56.
Portland has a solid staff to turn to. Carley Hoover has brought it since returning from Japan, going 3-0 with a 3.57 ERA and 39 strikeouts over 33.1 innings. Rookie Kenzie Brown has delivered dominant outings and does not seem fazed at this level, leading the staff with 40 strikeouts across 37.1 innings while holding hitters to a .227 average. Sam Landry is another Cascade arm that has proven she can get it done, going 4-3 with 26 strikeouts over 32.0 innings across 10 appearances.
Then there’s Payton Gottshall, who was fantastic the last time Portland faced Chicago, spinning 4.1 scoreless innings in relief to close out the 5-4 win that snapped the Bandits’ nine-game winning streak on July 12. Flowers knows the stakes, and if need be, the pitching would follow a strategic approach.
“Everybody has to be ready,” Flowers said. “To us, it’s every pitcher, anyone needs to be prepared and ready to go in, and we’ve talked about it throughout the entire season of maybe we utilize the pitching change a little bit more than we have been, and somebody leave the game, come back. I mean, just with the way that the rules are.”
I don’t know if we will see a Texas Tech-style night of pitching changes, but at this point, anything is on the table. It’s all hands on deck.
“I think we came up with that there could be 11 pitching changes in a game,” Flowers said. “So, we’ve played around with that idea, and hopefully we don’t necessarily need to go down that road, but we’re willing to do it, because, like you said, game is on the line. This is the season right here, so, everybody, pinch hitters, pinch runners, defenders, I mean, everybody needs to be ready to play their best games, and it could be just one matchup for a pitcher. If they’re the right person at that one moment, then we’re willing to make that move.”
While a lot of the focus is on who’s throwing for Portland and how they will contain the Bandits offense, their best defense will be a strong offensive night of their own. Portland will bat first, and nothing would help more than jumping out ahead.
A trio of hot bats could help make that happen. Sierra Sacco-Ferrie has swung a hot bat in her second AUSL season, hitting .298 with 14 hits and 5 RBIs across 19 games. She has heated up at the right time, batting .500 over her last six games and .412 over her last 12, with a 1.000 OPS in that stretch.
Korbe Otis has been just as steady, hitting .295 with 23 hits, 5 home runs and 18 RBIs while posting a .913 OPS over 25 games. Megan Grant has been every bit as dangerous, leading the group with 10 home runs and 22 RBIs to go with a 1.231 OPS over 23 games. Grant is riding a hot stretch of her own, hitting .375 with 3 home runs and 9 RBIs over her last six games.
“We have to attack,” Flowers said. “Attack early and often, and try and minimize. I mean, they’re a great swinging team, so we know they’re gonna score. That’s not realistic to think, hey, let’s keep them off the board. We gotta keep the runs minimum, and we have to capitalize when we have our opportunities.
“So, come out ready to hit her mistakes early on, and whoever they put in the circle. I mean, we’ve seen everybody that they have, and so we have to come prepared, ready to swing the bat, and play good defense. We know they’re going to be aggressive in the box, too, so it’s more of take care of ourselves and our game, and good things will happen.”
First pitch is set for 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDT Thursday night, and will be televised on ESPN.
