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The second day of the 30-game Athletes Unlimited season saw what you’d expect: a lot of offensive highlights and some standout pitching.
After the opening weekend, Sam Show holds a commanding overall points lead and is getting it done with her arm and her bat.
Here are recaps of the games done by Bruce Miles for Athletes Unlimited and photos courtesy of Jade Hewitt Media.
Monday’s contests (Games 5 & 6) are on CBS Sports Net at 4PM and 8PM ET.
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GAME 3: OCASIO PITCHES A GEM TO TOP LEADERBOARD IN 10-2 WIN
The winning teams have been doubling their pleasure so far this weekend.
In each of the first two games of Athletes Unlimited softball in Rosemont, the winning team has scored in double figures each game.
That was the case again on another sun-kissed day at Parkway Bank Sports Complex.
The Orange team captained by Jessie Warren jumped on Nicole Pendley’s Blue team for two runs in the first inning and four more in the second on their way to a 10-2 victory. Team Warren is 2-0, having beaten Team Fagan 11-3 in Saturday’s season opener.
Gwen Svekis hit a three-run homer in the second inning, a big drive to right-center field. She also hit a sacrifice fly in the first to earn 50 individual points; she has a total of 280 for the two games played.
Catcher Erika Piancastelli, who did not start Saturday, made her presence felt with a first-inning walk, an RBI single in the fifth and a booming home run off the right-center field scoreboard in the sixth. She earned 60 individual points, 20 for being the MVP 3 choice and 110 for the game. She has 310 across two days of play.
With all of that offense, let’s not forget about the gem of a pitching performance by Aleshia Ocasio. The right-hander worked six innings, giving up six hits and two earned runs. She earned 72 points for the 18 outs she recorded minus 20 for the runs she allowed – 52 points. She was voted MVP 1, earning 60 points for that, giving her 222 for the game and 344 total, leading all players heading into Sunday’s second game.
The most impressive thing about Ocasio was that she changed speeds masterfully on her pitches, keeping hitters off-balance all day. She chalked it up to a super-charged battery with Piancastelli.
“She never caught me that much before, so our game plan was to mix, as always, to mix,” Ocasio said. “She called a great game behind the plate. I had three strikeouts so I owe it to the team to be able to be masterful. I thought we made some good plays. I owe it to them.”
Team Warren got things done every which way on offense. Center fielder Victoria Hayward set the tone off the bat by punching one past the third baseman in into left field for a single.
“I was just working the left side of the field to get on for our team,” said Hayward, who has piled up 330 points. “We’ve got a lot of speed. So any way I can get on base, I’m not being too picky.”
Team Pendley got a run back in the third, but Team Warren put it away for good with a run in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth, on Piancastelli’s big blast.
Did she think it would hit the scoreboard?
“I thought I made good contact, so I was hoping it would.”
Despite not starting Saturday, Piancastelli was ready for Sunday.
I felt really good,” she said. “I feel really comfortable with this team. Overall great vibes and a fun game.”
A native of Modena, Italy, Piancastelli said her folks at home were watching.
“Absolutely, they’re all watching,” she said. “They were all super excited when it was made available for them in the country. They’re watching it. They’re all taking it in. I’m super excited to have them watch and understand how this new league works and give them hope they can play out here, too.”
For Team Pendley, Caleigh Clifton picked up a single and a double, giving her 30 points plus 10 win points for the team winning the third inning.
Starting pitcher Taylor McQuillin lasted 1.2 innings, giving up four hits and six runs, four earned.
Check out the Game 3 Athletes Unlimited video highlights:
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GAME 4: TEAM WAGNER USES FOUR-RUN SIXTH TO PUSH PAST TEAM FAGAN IN 6-2 WIN
All hail the captain.
With Sunday’s second game hanging in the balance early, Team Gold captain Haylie Wagner took over in relief of starting pitcher Samantha Show in the bottom of the third inning right after Sami Fagan’s Team Purple had tied the score at 2-2. Wagner stranded a pair to end the threat and wound up working 4.1 scoreless innings of relief as her team scored four in the sixth inning to post a 6-2 victory at Parkway Bank Sports Complex.
“It’s super important, not just because she’s our captain, but for any pitcher that would be in that position,” Show said. “It’s nice to know that our staff on this whole team can come in at any time and do what they need to do and trust our lineup to go out and produce when they’re getting it done on the field that we’re going to go out and score some runs for them.”
Wagner, who started and won Saturday’s game for her team, is 2-0 heading into Monday’s two Athletes Unlimited games.
It was a familiar cast of characters doing the damage for Team Wagner. Show homered in the first inning against Danielle O’Toole and added a single in the sixth, when nine batters went to the plate. She also walked in the seventh.
Show was voted the game’s MVP 1 to gain an additional 60 points and now holds a commanding lead in the overall points standings with 494. Teammate Jazmyn Jackson is second with 370 after she went 2-for-3 Sunday including a two-run double in the decisive sixth inning.
Wagner was named MVP 2, and Taylor Edwards of Team Fagan took home MVP 3 after leading her team with two hits.
Megan Wiggins gave Team Wagner a 2-1 lead with an RBI single in the top of the third before Team Fagan gamely fought back to tie it in the bottom half on run-scoring singles by Edwards and Tori Vidales. It was after Vidales’ single that Wagner came in and got Kylan Becker on a pop out.
Wagner was dominant from there, and an offense that has proven to be relentless over two days got it done in the sixth with five hits.
For Wagner, her relief pitching was all in a day’s work.
“I’ll always have my pitcher’s back no matter who it is,” she said. “So I just really went out there and wanted to get everybody out of a tough situation and get us back in there and score some more runs.”
Rounding out the leading points scorers after two full days of play are Aleshia Ocasio (344), Cat Osterman (340), Victoria Hayward (330), Wagner (330), Jessica Warren (320), Erika Piancastelli (310), and Megan Wiggins (310).
The top four finishers after Monday’s competition will be captains responsible for drafting new teams for next weekend’s play. It seems Wagner has done quite the nice job of captaining her ship.
“I’m going to go for the best players,” she said of drafting. “A lot of them are on this team right here. I think people are getting the gist of how to draft. You can’t just go for your friends. You’ve got to go for the best on the board. I’m just grateful we’re able to help, not just the other two (Show and Jackson) here, but the team. We should be getting drafted rather high now because we’re going out and producing, not just the starting nine, people off the bench – baserunners. Everybody’s doing what they they need to do. I think that’s super cool to uplift each other to get drafted higher.”
Here are Game 4 video highlights: