“I talked to my dad before the game, and he’s like, ‘Just hit a strike.’ And I was like, ‘You know what? Good idea. Let me hit a strike.'”
Sharlize Palacios shared her dad’s advice with AUSL reporter Sydney Supple after Saturday’s AUSL All-Star Cup game. Palacios not only hit a strike, but smashed it for a two-run home run in the bottom of the first. Team Klingler then rode great pitching and defense to a 2-1 win over Team Brown.
That was Palacios’ second home run of the All-Star Cup. She now sits atop the leaderboard with 560 total points after Saturday’s MVP 1 performance. In addition, Palacios seems locked in as a Series 3 captain. Team Klingler is done for the weekend. The top 15 spots on the leaderboard all come from that team.
The two players just outside the top 15 are the captains of the only two teams still in action. Keilani Ricketts sits at No. 16 with 278 points and Kenzie Brown at No. 17 with 272. Both are under half of Palacios’ total, with one game left to close the gap. The chase is almost all pitching. Ricketts, Brown, Megan Faraimo, Karlyn Pickens and Amber Fiser hold No. 16 through No. 20. Afterwards, Morgan Zerkle, the first position player, stands at No. 21 with 220.
Team Brown and Team Ricketts are the only teams still earning points. Therefore, for the Series 3 captains to be anyone other than Palacios, Baylee Klingler and Sam Landry, players from those two teams will have to put on a great game Sunday night. Also, winning innings will be huge.
For context, the two biggest single-game outputs of the cup so far are Sam Landry’s 246 points Friday night and Palacios’ 240 on Saturday. If Ricketts matched that 246 on Sunday, she would climb to 524 and jump to No. 2. She would pass both Klingler and Landry, knocking Landry out of a captain seat. It’s a steep hill to climb. However, anything is possible.
The All-Star Cup so far has shown that great pitching and defense is still in business. It ran heavily down the stretch of the regular season, and it has carried over to Rosemont. Team Klingler won both Series 2 games and only allowed one unearned run. Klingler did a fantastic job putting together this team.
For Game 3 of the series between Team Ricketts and Team Brown, tune in to MLB Network at 8 p.m. EDT / 7 p.m. CDT., and see what happens.
For the complete AUSL All-Star Cup Leaderboard, click here.
