Saturday’s AUSL All-Star Cup game reverted to a pitchers’ duel with fantastic defense. Megan Faraimo and Georgina Corrick dueled for the better part of the game before the bullpen took over. However, all of the offense happened in the seventh inning, and Baylee Klingler took the last swing with a walk-off two-run homer for the 2-1 win.
Faraimo struck out the opening side of the game in 17 pitches and went on to deal a total of seven strikeouts over 5.0 innings with two hits allowed. Corrick pitched 4.0 innings and fanned four with two walks and four hits allowed.
Team Klingler had a chance to push across runs in the fourth inning. Jadelyn Allchin led off with a double. She moved to third on a Hannah Flippen sacrifice bunt. Then, with two outs, Aleshia Ocasio walked to put runners on the corners. After Ocasio moved over, Corrick escaped damage with a strikeout of Ailana Agbayani.
Then, in the bottom of the fifth, after Faraimo completed her last frame with two strikeouts, Team Klingler faced Rachel Garcia and ended up with Skylar Wallace on third with two outs, but could not get her in. Kat Sandercock took the ball in the top of the sixth, as Faraimo’s day ended. Sandercock began hot and struck out the side.
However, in the top of the seventh, Megan Grant broke the scoreless tie with a solo home run off Sandercock to put Team Landry up 1-0.
Then, Sam Landry, who took the ball for her team in the bottom of the sixth, gave up a bottom-of-the-seventh leadoff single to Agbayani. After Landry struck out Wallace and induced a groundout, she gave up Klingler’s walk-off two-run shot to center field.
Klingler earned MVP 1 honors, with Faraimo taking MVP 2 and Grant MVP 3. Sydney Sherrill, who made some snappy defensive plays, took defensive player of the game. Below is the top five of the AUSL All-Star Cup leaderboard.
Rank | Chg | Athlete | Pos | Total Pts | Win Points | Stat Points | MVP Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | +4 | Klingler, B. | IF | 750 | 560 | 70 | 120 |
2 | -1 | Landry, S. | RHP | 686 | 480 | 106 | 100 |
3 | -1 | Corrick, G. | RHP | 648 | 480 | 128 | 40 |
4 | +3 | Kilfoyl, L. | RHP | 628 | 500 | 88 | 40 |
5 | +5 | Flippen, H. | IF | 610 | 560 | 10 | 40 |
The Series 3 finale between Team Klingler and Team Palacios is set for Sunday night, at 8 p.m. EDT, 7 p.m. CDT on MLB Network.
