On Sunday night, the AUSL All-Star Cup came to a close in a rainy Rosemont, Ill. Despite a 5-0 Team Kilfoyl loss, with Lexi Kilfoyl surrendering four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning (three earned) in just a third of an inning, Kilfoyl secured an MVP 2 vote and the 2026 AUSL All-Star Cup championship.
Sam Landry opened the game up with great stuff and retired Team Kilfoyl in order, striking out Megan Grant to end the frame. Megan Faraimo took the ball for Team Kilfoyl and rolled through in order. All three grounded out to Sami Williams at third base.
In the top of the second inning, Landry gave up back-to-back two-out hits to Bella Dayton and Ailana Agbayani. But a Mary Iakopo flyout left them both on base.
Sharlize Palacios led off the bottom of the second with a single down the third-base line. Williams just missed on a diving attempt. Then, with two outs, Team Klingler jumped on the board. With Sydney McKinney on first, Amari Harper recorded an RBI single to right-center to make it 1-0. They not only scored but took 20 inning win points.
Skylar Wallace nailed a one-out double in the top of the third inning. Then, Aubrey Leach beat out an infield single to move Wallace to third. Leach executed a slap to perfection and placed it between Landry and third base. But Grant grounded into a 6-3 double play, as Alyssa Brito made a fantastic play to retire the side and keep Team Klingler in the lead.
The game shaped into a pitchers’ duel. Faraimo worked through 3.0 innings and gave up one run on two hits, with two strikeouts. Then in the bottom of the fourth, Kat Sandercock took the ball for Team Kilfoyl. She began with a strikeout of Baylee Klingler before giving up a single to Palacios. Sandercock went on to leave Palacios stranded and picked up another strikeout in the inning.
Landry’s night came to a close as Georgina Corrick entered to begin the top of the fifth. Landry threw 4.0 innings of shutout ball. With one out, Kendra Falby smacked a single to right field. Then after moving over on a groundout, Falby went on to third on a Leach single up the middle. Leach improved to 2-for-3 on the night.
Corrick loaded the bases with a Grant two-out walk. However, she got out of the jam with Williams grounding into a fielder’s choice with a forceout at third.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Kilfoyl entered the game, and Team Klingler extended their lead. Jadelyn Allchin led off with a single. Then, with one out, Klingler reached on a fielding error as Ailana Agbayani could not come up with a sliding catch. That brought up Palacios, who singled, and Sydney McKinney followed with an RBI single to make the score 2-0.
Kilfoyl just could not catch a break, and three more runs came across. Bri Ellis smacked a two-RBI double, and Harper added an RBI single to make it 5-0. Kilfoyl then pulled herself from the game and went back to Sandercock, who got out of the inning with Brito grounding into a double play.
After that short outing, Kilfoyl’s chances of pulling out the All-Star Cup title took a massive blow. She lost 26 points by giving up four runs (three earned) on five hits in just a third of an inning. That appeared to give Klingler all the juice she needed to leap Kilfoyl and be crowned the 2026 AUSL All-Star Cup champion, but Kilfoyl secured an MVP 2 vote and finished with 1,072 points to Klingler’s 1,040. Landry finished in third place with 908 points.
See Kilfoyl’s speech below.
