COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The play-in game to set up the Athletes Unlimited Softball League championship series went down as an instant classic.
The Chicago Bandits and Portland Cascade battled in a three-hour, 25-minute game. It ended with an Ailana Agbayani bottom of the 11th inning walkoff RBI single to score Taryn Kern. This gave the Bandits a 6-5 win.
This game had everything you would want in a playoff environment. Through the first four innings, it looked like the Cascade were cruising toward a championship series berth. Carley Hoover held a no-hitter going into the bottom of the fifth. Meanwhile, the Cascade jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
However, after a great start and the game heading into the later stages of the contest, the Bandits had a breakthrough in the bottom of the fifth.
In the first inning, Sierra Sacco-Ferrie ripped a one-out single to center to extend her hitting streak to six games. Sacco-Ferrie came home on a Sydney Stewart two-out RBI double to take an early 1-0 lead. Portland wasn’t done, and a Kenleigh Cahalan RBI single brought Stewart home to make it 2-0.
The Cascade were able to stay in counts against Kat Sandercock and capitalized on a few good balls. After that first inning, Sandercock bounced back to retire the next couple of innings in order.
Hoover and the Cascade defense kept the Bandits grounded early on. Hoover’s ability to work the zone and minimize hard contact allowed the defense to play. Sacco-Ferrie’s play in left field has been huge, and she continued that Thursday night. She made a huge diving catch early in the game and ran down another in foul territory.
In the top of the fourth, Stewart led off with her second double in as many at-bats. Then with two outs, Sis Bates worked a long 14-pitch two-out walk. That allowed Tori Vidales to follow with an RBI single to bring Stewart home, making it 3-0.
In the bottom of the fifth, things got even. Hoover issued a walk to Keirstin Roose, and Roose moved to third on a one-out single by Bella Dayton. Dayton’s hit broke Hoover’s no-hit bid and breathed some life into the Bandits. Agbayani followed by reaching on a hit by pitch to load the bases.
Things all of a sudden felt a little tight. Skylar Wallace worked an RBI walk to bring the Bandits within two. That set up Morgan Zerkle for a two-out, 2 RBI double to tie the game. Hoover got out of the inning without further damage. That was the night for Hoover, as Payton Gottshall took the ball the next inning.
From that point on, it was a boxing match that turned into the longest game in AUSL history.
Chicago looked ready to end it in the seventh, putting two runners on. But Kendra Falby kept the Cascade alive. She caught a fly ball in the outfield and fired to third to double off Wallace. This sent the game to extras.
Cascade head coach Tairia Flowers spoke to how the team was ready defensively, and everyone was just in constant communication the whole game.
“We knew that it was gonna be a fight,” Flowers said. “We knew they were gonna put the ball in play. We knew they were gonna come out swinging, and everybody was ready.”
Both teams traded blows in the eighth. Portland grabbed the go-ahead run on a Chicago throwing error, and the Bandits answered right back when Kern singled to right to score Zerkle. A weather delay stopped play in the ninth. However, neither side would blink again until the 11th.
The bullpens carried the fight. Lexi Kilfoyl gave the Bandits 7 innings out of the bullpen and kept them in it. She refused to let the Cascade pull away when one mistake would have ended Chicago’s season. Kenzie Brown answered with a strong stretch out of the Cascade bullpen of her own. For a while it looked like nobody would land the final punch.
Chicago coach Shonda Stanton credited Kilfoyl for carrying the load.
“She got us out of some major jams, particularly when our defense was falling apart a little bit and not making the play,” Stanton said. “For a pitcher to keep that composure, that’s a boss woman right there.”
Portland scratched out a run in the top of the 11th to lead 5-4. But in the bottom half, Kern doubled to tie it, then came around to score the winner. With two outs, Agbayani shot a single down the first-base line by Vidales, and Kern raced home from third for the 6-5 walkoff.
“I didn’t really know if she was on the line, off the line,” Agbayani said. “So seeing her dive and then the ball going through, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s past. We’re done.'”
Hear everything that was said from Cascade head coach Tairia Flowers, Tori Vidales and Bandits head coach Shonda Stanton, Mac Barbara, and Ailana Agbayani, below.
