COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The inaugural Athletes Unlimited Softball League play-in game lived up to billing as the Chicago Bandits walked it off 6-5 over the Portland Cascade in 11 innings Thursday at Davis Diamond.
Ailana Agbayani’s RBI single down the first-base line ended the longest game in league history as she drove in Taryn Kern from third.
The Bandits will meet the top-seeded Utah Talons in a best-of-three series that is a rematch of last year’s AUSL championship starting at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday at Davis Diamond. The game will be broadcast on ABC.
Game 2 is set for 2 p.m. on ET Sunday with it airing on ESPN. The third game if necessary is set for 6 p.m. ET Monday and will air on EPSN2.
ATHLETES UNLIMITED SOFTBALL LEAGUE
“I didn’t really know if the [first baseman] was on the line, off the line, so seeing her dive and the ball going through, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s past,’” said the daughter of former Major League Benny Agbayani. “We’re done.”
The previous longest game in league history was a nine-inning affair, but this one blew past that. Along with it lasting for 11 innings, there was also a weather delay in the ninth.
“Wow what a game and again congratulations to everybody involved from our founders to [commissioner] Kim [Ng] and company,” Chicago Bandits head coach Shonda Stanton said. “Hats off to Cascade, they played an incredible game [and an] incredible season. That was a game that you hate for anybody to lose but we won though. I’m just so proud of our fight and just staying the course.”
Agbayani, the former BYU and Oklahoma standout who’s also in her first season with the AUSL, said it wasn’t her first career walk-off as she’s had another. The details of that game-winning hit she admits she can’t remember much about, but Thursday was a much different story.
“Oh definitely,” Agbayani said about remembering this one. “Very significant.”
Kern was heroic in her own right as she tied the game to set the stage for Agbayani. Kern tied for the team lead in both hits (2) and RBIs (2) as she was 2 for 4. Kern was tied for the lead with Morgan Zerkle in RBIs and with Agbayani in hits.
Trailing 5-4 going into the bottom of the frame, Mary Iakopo’s sacrifice bunt moved over Jocelyn Erickson who started the inning at second due to the extra innings rules. With one out, Kern’s RBI double scored Erickson. Kern wasn’t there long as Bella Dayton’s groundout advanced her to third.
“No doubt that she’s meant for the moment,” Agbayani said of Kern’s hit. “She’s meant for this, so I had all the faith in her honestly. Not shocked.”
The second-seeded Bandits (17-9) had to have that kind of faith in each other as Chicago never led until the end. Chicago also committed five errors with two of those errors resulting in runs in the eighth and again in the 11th.
“Not often at any level, little league, college, pro can have you five errors and win a ball game but that’s what it’s about being gritty,” Stanton said.
Third-seeded Portland (14-12) scored two runs in the top of the first and added to their lead with a run in the fourth.
Sydney Stewart and Kenleigh Cahalan had RBIs in the first, while Tori Vidales had an RBI in the fourth.
That run support was seemingly more than enough for Cascade pitcher Carely Hoover who had a no-hitter through four innings. Hoover’s night was done after the fifth as she gave up three runs.
Hoover pitched one more inning than Chicago starter Kat Sandercock who gave up five hits, three runs, walked one and struck out two. Sandercock was replaced by Lexi Kilfoyl who pitched basically a complete game to earn the win.
Kilfoyl worked seven innings and gave up two hits, two unearned runs and struck out four.
After Hoover exited, Portland leaned on Payton Gottshall for an inning before Kenzie Brown took over. Brown took the loss as she worked 4 2/3 innings with four hits, three runs, one earned run, walked two and struck out three.
“Both teams competing hard, lots of good things on both sides and unfortunately, we came up on the short end of it but really proud of our team and the way that we came out and struck first and played well together,” Portland Cascade head coach Tairia Flowers said. “Everybody stepped up, different people at different times, so couldn’t say anything better about this group.”