Monday night, the Texas Volts completed the sweep of the Carolina Blaze with an 8-0 walk-off win in the bottom of the fifth inning. Aliyah Binford topped off the day for the Volts offense with a two-RBI single to score Ally Carda and Dejah Mulipola. Texas improved to 6-15 on the season, while the Blaze fell to 8-12.
The Volts were led in the circle by Rachel Garcia. Monday went down as one of her best outings of the season. Garcia finished with a five-inning complete-game shutout with 8 strikeouts. Even in a few situations where the Blaze threatened to score, Garcia locked in.
“I think just being able to trust my process and essentially just being able to attack the zone,” Garcia said. “I know there were a couple calls that didn’t go my way, but just knowing that I need to keep working through what I can work through and just attacking what I know that I can get them to swing on. But yeah, I think it was just, you trusted that person in front of you, you trusted the person behind you, and as long as you were able to pass the bat, that we were going to win this ball game.”
Garcia kept the Blaze to a .167 batting average and stifled their attempts for a timely hit. The Blaze have struggled mightily in those situations lately, and Monday was the same. They finished 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position, 1-for-9 with runners on, and what hurt the most was going 0-for-2 with runners on third with less than two outs.
The Volts, on the other hand, put forth a big day offensively. Mulipola started the scoring with a two-out RBI double off Ruby Meylan, who made her first start for the Blaze. Meylan didn’t make it out of the first inning, and Jackie Lis played a big part in that. With two on and two outs, Lis belted a three-run home run to take an early 4-0 lead.
“Jackie, as we’ve talked about a couple of times now, she’s one of those young players that is just a raw athlete that could probably play anywhere on the field,” Volts head coach Ricci Woodard said. “And the moment is never too big for her. I think you can tell she just is pretty low-key and loves what she’s doing. And it’s just been fun to watch her kind of take off in these last few weeks in this game.”
The Blaze went to Emma Lemley, who finished the game. She had a solid second inning, but the Volts were able to find their way on the scoreboard in the third through fifth innings. Tiare Jennings smashed a leadoff home run in the third, Sierra Romero led off with another home run in the fourth, and then in the fifth, Binford ended it with the walk-off two-RBI single.
The Blaze failed to push across a single run and were shut out for the second time this series, the third time total this season. The loss was their sixth in a row. Blaze head coach Kara Dill remains hopeful for a turnaround. The end of the season is drawing near, with only five games left at home for the Blaze, and their playoff hopes have taken a major hit.
“We’re going to keep trying,” Dill said. “At the end of the day, we’re going to keep trying everything we have. I have a great coaching staff. We have great players on our roster. So, we’re just going to keep trying. We’re going to keep trying different things. We know at some point it’s going to click. Unfortunately, the season is short, and we’re coming to an end here. So, hopefully it’s not clicking on the last game when we get a little turnaround, but I have every confidence that we’re going to figure it out, and we’re going to keep trying. We are going to keep showing up and giving effort.”
