DURHAM, N.C. – The Carolina Blaze returned home to host the Utah Talons in the AUSL Signature Series at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The Talons took an eight-inning game, 3-2, with Georgina Corrick going the distance. If you missed the action, I have the full game recap here.
Karlyn Pickens took the ball and opened with a strikeout of Aliyah Andrews. Jadelyn Allchin, who came in batting .353, responded with a triple to right field. But back-to-back groundouts stranded her at third.
Corrick, who recently returned to the Talons from the Japan Diamond Softball League, opened with a strikeout of Aubrey Leach-Gartner. Corrick and the Talons went on to retire the Blaze in order for a quick first inning.
Utah jumped on base in the second inning and brought across one run on a Sarah Gordon single to score Hannah Flippen, who opened with a single. That was Gordon’s first professional hit. Then, Reese Atwood made a big play by catching Caroline Jacobsen stealing second. That was the first runner caught of her professional career.
The pitching matchup really showed, with Corrick and Pickens keeping things moving. Pickens worked down pretty well to induce plenty of groundouts, and Corrick mixed her sequences as well as she normally has.
In the bottom of the third, Corrick fanned Devyn Netz to lead things off. Then, Aleshia Ocasio answered with a triple to right field that Jacobsen could not corral at the wall. Leach-Gartner reached on a fielder’s choice, with Ocasio scoring on a fielding error to tie the game. The first runs for each team were aided by errors.
The Blaze defense showed up in the top of the fourth. After Kailey Wyckoff led off with a walk, she was wiped out at second with Flippen reaching on a fielder’s choice, and the Blaze just missed a turned double play.
But the Blaze executed on the next chance, with Sahvanna Jaquish grounding into a 1-6-3 double play. Alyssa Brito has been a solid player at shortstop this season and makes plays every game that you don’t see in the stats.
This game was as even as it could get. Corrick worked through a clean bottom of the fourth, with a couple of runners reaching. The Blaze, however, could not capitalize after Jenna Laird’s two-out single to put two on. The trust Corrick has in her stuff and in her defense shows. Carolina made contact on a lot of balls, but they mostly ended in flyouts and popouts.
Corrick said Gordon reminded her in the circle to lean on the players around her. With the belief and chemistry the Talons have, it makes them a team destined to be great.
“I trust my defense,” Corrick said. “Gordy turned to me at one point in the game, she said, ‘You have the best defense in the country behind you,’ so you just have to trust them.”
Pickens began the fifth with missed spots that put Gordon on via a hit by pitch, and Jacobsen with a walk. After Brito erased Jacobsen at second on a Tayler Biehl fielder’s choice, Atwood recorded her second caught stealing of the game, getting Biehl at second. Pickens induced another groundout to get out of the inning.
Blaze coach Kara Dill credited Atwood for the work behind the plate.
“Reese was ready for it,” Dill said. “She loves throwing the ball. That is exactly who she is. It wasn’t anything more than who she is.”
She also pointed to the infield communication in those situations. With things still fairly new with this group, things have been solid.
“They did a good job of communicating,” Dill said. “Brito had the one tag, and then Jenna had the other tag.”
Corrick placed another zero on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Dakota Kennedy beat out a two-out infield single to move Baylee Klingler to second, but nothing else came of that inning.
Pickens induced her 11th and 12th groundouts of the game to begin the top of the sixth. Wyckoff ripped a two-out single to right field, and Flippen followed with a walk to place two on. However, Pickens got out of the inning with the first Talons flyout of the game.
The Blaze needed to make some things happen to push across a run late, but Corrick kept it clean again. Atwood led off and reached on a Biehl fielding error. Then, Jala Wright came in to pinch run and moved to second on a Brito groundout. That put the winning run in scoring position, but was left stranded.
Pickens worked into the seventh inning, and this marked the first time this season that she had to do so. Gordon opened with a single to put the go-ahead run on for the Talons. Then, Pickens responded with back-to-back strikeouts before Andrews beat out an infield single. Allchin then grounded back to Pickens to retire the side.
The Blaze needed just one run to walk off for the series-opening win. Leach-Gartner reached with a one-out double to right field, for her first hit of the game and the Blaze’s fifth. Kennedy followed with a ball driven to left field that was caught, and Leach-Gartner was left stranded.
Dill saw that frame as one of the missed moments of the game.
“Aubrey hits the double, we have a runner in scoring position in the seventh with one out, and our number two and our number three batter coming up,” she said. “The losses feel bad, but we are right there in so many of those games. So yeah, the ball goes a little bit further, or that left fielder stands in a different position to start with, those are base hits, and that wins the game for us.”
This game was the pitcher’s duel that was expected, and both did enough to lock in and keep hitters off just enough to get out of innings clean.
With the game in extra innings, a runner was placed on second to start the side. Allchin began the eighth in that spot and came home on a leadoff RBI single up the middle from Jordan Woolery.
Wyckoff had a chance to extend the lead, but Kennedy made a great diving catch in right field to keep the runner at first. That was Pickens’ last pitch of the game, and Keilani Ricketts took the ball. Pickens turned in a very good outing. She was efficient with 7.1 innings, 2 runs (0 earned), 7 hits, 4 strikeouts, 3 walks on 123 pitches.
Dill said the move to Ricketts had been building, and they finally made the call.
“Our pitching coach Kyler Holton and I had been talking about it for a couple of innings, just what we had seen with her,” Dill said. “Her pitch count was getting pretty high. She lost a little bit of command in the fifth and sixth, so we had thought about taking her out then, and going with our veteran Keilani in that moment.”
After retiring Flippen, Ricketts battled with Jaquish and gave up a single on a nine-pitch at-bat. Then Gordon brought Rachel Becker, who pinch ran for Woolery, home with an RBI single to make it 3-1 Talons and wrap up the scoring in that frame. Gordon finished 3-for-3 with two RBIs.
“I was just trying to do my thing,” Gordon said. “Any pitcher out here, we are just trying to be on time, and that’s what I was trying to do as a hitter. So just going out there and trying to come through for the team and just have a team at bat, and stay in my plan and what I was thinking.”
McKenzie Clark opened the bottom of the eighth on second, and she immediately moved to third on a wild pitch. Corrick, who remained in the game, struck out Ana Gold for the first out. Then, Atwood came through with an RBI single to bring Clark home, making it 3-2.
With two outs and a chance for Utah to wrap it up, Jenna Laird beat out an infield single to place two on, and a hit by pitch to Netz loaded the bases to give Ocasio a chance to tie the game or walk off.
Ocasio grounded out on a 2-2 pitch to short to end the night. Corrick went the distance with 8.0 innings, 2 runs (0 earned), 7 hits, 4 strikeouts on 120 pitches.
Talons coach Cindy Ball-Malone spoke highly of the opportunity to coach Corrick afterward. After years of coaching against her in college, she doesn’t have to worry about that now.
“I’ve had the pleasure of having to play against her for so many years in college, coach against her,” Ball-Malone said. “So to be on the same team as her is just awesome, and just to see her work out there.”
Dill summed up the night as a whole. This was a marquee matchup that featured fantastic pitching and defense on both sides.
“Both pitchers did a phenomenal job, both pitching staffs did a phenomenal job,” Dill said. “We had some great hits, and then the defense would make some great plays, and I think you got to see a little bit of everything in that.”
