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Week 5 – the final week of the inaugural Athletes Unlimited softball season – wrapped up Monday night in Chicago with Cat Osterman ending on top of the overall points total.
Here are recaps of the games today written by Bruce Miles for Athletes Unlimited and photos courtesy of Jade Hewitt Media.
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Game 29: MCCLENEY’S THREE-RUN HOMER COMPLETES TEAM PIANCASTELLI COMEBACK AGAINST TEAM OCASIO
There’s always room in the Athletes Unlimited home run club, even at closing time.
Old members welcomed new members Monday during a come-from-behind 9-8 victory for Team Piancastelli over Team Ocasio on a cool and breezy afternoon at Parkway Bank Sports Complex.
In all, batters from both sides combined for seven home runs, with Kelsey Jenkins, Aleshia Ocasio and Sashel Palacios hitting their first homers on this last day of the Athletes Unlimited Softball season.
In the end, though, it was some familiar power hitters who helped Team Piancastelli rally from an 8-1 deficit that had piled up by the fourth inning.
Sahvanna Jaquish got things going in the fourth with a three-run homer, her ninth of the year to tie her for the league lead with captain Erika Piancastelli. On-base machine Nerissa Myers, playing in her last pro game, hit her second homer of the season in the fifth to make it 8-6.
Haylie McCleney capped the afternoon with a go-ahead three-run shot to right-center in the sixth. It was her sixth of the season. And to hear McCleney tell it, there was no quit in the Blue dugout, even down 8-1.
“No, not at all,” she said. “We knew that we were in it the entire game. And we said when we were down 8-1, ‘Just chip away. Just pass the bat. Just continue to pass the bat.’ We did that. And you could tell, the closer and closer we got, the more and more belief we had. I happened to get the last big hit, but there were so many big hits before that.”
McCleney was voted MVP 1 of the game, earning 60 additional points. MVP 2 honors and 40 extra points went to Myers, who had singled and grounded out before her homer. With the wind favoring flyballs, no way was she going to pound another into the turf.
“It was really nice,” she said. “I have a great group of hitters around who make it really easy to swing. So I swung … I was not hitting another groundball. Elevate and celebrate.”
Jaquish has been one of the most dangerous hitters all season. She was asked about a friendly competition for the league home run lead with Piancastelli.
“Probably not for her, but I wasn’t going to let her do that by herself,” Jaquish said. “I respect Erika Piancastelli 1,000 times over. She has been one of my friends since McNeese and Louisiana. She’s just a great captain, and I think we can all attest to that. She is genuinely rooting for you every single time.”
This game doesn’t turn out this way if not for the relief pitching of Taylor McQuillin, who came on in the fifth and worked three scoreless innings to earn MVP 3 honors and 20 extra points.
“It was absolutely clutch on her part,” McCleney said. “We knew it was going to be a pitch by committee coming into this weekend. Taylor was absolutely lights out. There is no way we got the job done without her today. It was so much fun to play behind her defensively. She was just on it from the get-go. From the moment she came in you just knew that she had her stuff.”
Myers was asked about her swan song from softball.
“This is definitely my last game,” she said. “I don’t really have much to say. My teammates have had my back the entire time I was here. It’s been amazing. It’s been a whirlwind. Everyone here helps me along the way. I greatly appreciate you and everyone who I’ve learned (from) and talked to here. I really appreciate them. I think that we have a really good group of girls coming up to elevate softball. I think softball’s on the rise.”
Here are the Game 29 video highlights:
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Game 30: Team Osterman rallies in the fourth for 18-3 victory
Cat Osterman needed only a little help from her friends to stave off a heroic effort from Jessie Warren for the overall points title in Athletes Unlimited softball.
She got more than a little help.
Osterman’s Team Gold overcame an early 3-0 deficit with a middle-innings blitz that simply overwhelmed Team Warren on the way to an 18-3 victory in the 2020 finale of the inaugural season.
The Gold side put together nine-run innings in the fourth and fifth to leave no doubt as Osterman took the night off of pitching and allowed lefty Haylie Wagner to toss a complete-game victory.
There were four homers hit by the Gold side, none more impressive or majestic than the three-run moon shot hit by Jordan Roberts in the fifth. Roberts got hold of the ball and sent it soaring into the night sky, well over the four captain’s banners that were flapping on a breezy and chilly evening.
The ball carried nearly to a highway on ramp. The estimated distance was 300 feet with an exit velocity of 79 mph.
Also homering for Team Osterman were Lilli Piper (a shot off the scoreboard in right-center), Gwen Svekis and Anissa Urtez.
When the air traffic finally subsided and the game ended, Osterman secured the individual points title among the 57 players here with 2,408, followed by Warren (2,020), Victoria Hayward (1,860) and Erika Piancastelli (1,840).
Osterman spoke during the closing ceremonies.
“To be honest, I came into this thinking it was just an opportunity to get some game innings, and you guys have truly changed my life,” she told her fellow players. “At 37, I think most people expected me to come in here and impart knowledge on you guys, and you guys probably imparted more knowledge than I could give.
“I’m going to challenge you guys. It’s your responsibility to keep playing. The reason you can play is because Megan Wiggins and I have kept playing. The reason Jordan Roberts had an opportunity to play this year is because Gwen Svekis has continued to play. Continue to play so the people below you have the opportunity to do this and have their life changed the way we all did because I think we are all leaving here in the next couple days nowhere close to the same person we were when we came in.”
For Team Warren Monday, Hannah Flippen gave the Orange side a 3-0 lead with a two-run homer in the third.
Warren did her best to keep her title hopes alive with a first-inning single. She also made a sensational diving catch of Aubrey Leach’s pop foul in the fifth, displaying no let-up even as the game was slipping away. This was Warren’s first loss as a team captain after she began 8-0 leading her teams.
Team Osterman finished the weekend 3-0 while Team Warren fell to 2-1. In the circle, Wagner finished 5-4 for the season.
The MVP breakdown for the game was Urtez (60 MVP points), Roberts (40) and Tori Vidales. Urtez added a triple and had five RBI. Vidales had three doubles and a single.
There was one other award to be handed out. Haylie McCleney was named the GEICO Defensive Player of the Year for her many spectacular plays in the outfield.
“It would be awesome,” she said earlier in the day before receiving the award. “Playing defense is something I’ve always prided myself on throughout my entire career, even more so than offense, I think. To be considered with Flippen and (Abby) Ramirez is an honor and a privilege in and of itself. I’m very, very lucky, very, very happy. It’s definitely a really cool thing.”
Here are the Game 30 video highlights: