Could the Chicago Bandits be starting to recreate some of the magic that led them to the Athletes Unlimited Softball League Championship Series last season?
It would appear so, especially after a 5-1 victory over the Carolina Blaze at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont on Monday.
The victory gave the Bandits (4-5) their second straight series win, as they have taken two of three from both the Blaze and the Oklahoma City Spark.
The magicians were aplenty during a matinee that was the makeup of a Sunday rainout.
There’s no better place to begin than with Bandits starting pitcher Amber Fiser, who continues to be the feel-good player of the season. All Fiser has done since being selected from the Reserve Athlete Pool is go 3-1 with a 2.15 ERA. Against the Blaze, she tossed a complete game, giving up four hits – none of them hard-hit – while walking three, striking out four and throwing a whopping 136 pitches.
Of the 29 batters Fiser faced, she threw first-pitch strikes to 19 of them.
“Just being a part of something, people that believe in me,” she said. “A team like this is a really hard culture to come by. I think that’s kind of what drives me and showing up every day, just being grateful to represent so much more than just myself, where I come from, and doing it with these girls and these coaches alongside me.”
On the other side of the ball, the top-of-the-order 1-2 punch of Morgan Zerkle and Erin Coffel had another big day that was reminiscent of last year’s exciting season. Zerkle tripled to lead off a two-run first inning against Keilani Ricketts and later doubled in the fourth, winding up with two runs scored.
No. 2 hitter Coffel, the MVP of AUSL last season, walked, doubled, singled and scored twice. She agreed that the Bandits are starting to feel it.
“Definitely, how can you not?” she said. “I think just ‘Fisey’ setting the tone on the mound. That’s really hard to come by. She set the tone for us and really just allowed us to get momentum at the plate.”
Sami Williams had an RBI triple in the second, and Mary Iakopo singled Williams home. Williams hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth to give Chicago its fifth run.
Fiser faced trouble twice in the game. Williams was charged with a couple of tough errors in the fourth, but the Bandits got out of it with a forceout and an inning-ending double play, one of two they turned, both started by second baseman Ailana Agbayani.
Jessica Clements made like a true Bandit in left field to rob Kayla Kowalik on a line drive to left field to start the second. No fielding play was taken for granted on a sunny afternoon with a strong wind blowing in from left field.
“You can’t give up until the last second,” Coffel said. “We dealt with that a little bit last year in Wichita. It’s a good thing this is our home. I think we have the advantage there.”
Fiser was quick to jump in with a weather fact.
“I will say this is the first day the wind was blowing in,” she said. “Kind of made me a little bit more fearless out there on the mound. Just trusting my stuff.”
The other bit of trouble Fiser encountered came in the seventh, when the Blaze scored its only run. She threw 42 pitches that inning, giving up a run-scoring walk to Ana Gold. The ending turned a little bizarre when Aubrey Leach came up with the bases loaded and appeared to have struck out on a 2-2 pitch. But the umpires called a pitch-clock violation on Fiser, who had to bear down and eventually get Leach to fly out, ending the game.
“I’d have to look and see if the clocks weren’t synced or something,” said Bandits Head Coach Shonda Stanton. “It appeared she (Fiser) had started her motion and had time on the clock. Obviously, he (the home-plate umpire) saw what he saw, so we’re not going to argue with that. But (I) was just trying to get them together to see if we could see something different there. What I’m proud of is you can’t control maybe what happens, but you can control your response. I thought Fiser locked in and controlled her response. That’s life.”
As for the Blaze (5-3), coach Kara Dill said that Ricketts was out of character in the first inning, when she threw 38 pitches and gave up one hit, two walks and a hit batter. Emma Lemley and Aleshia Ocasio both were solid out of the bullpen.
“She’s a veteran,” Dill said of Ricketts. “That’s just very out of the norm for her. I think it’s just a one-off situation. Just couldn’t find the zone today. She’s a great pitcher. She’s thrown a lot of pitches in her life. I have a ton of confidence with her going forward. There was always an option to put her back in the game at some point, too. But yeah, just struggled a little bit in that first.”
Bruce Miles has covered sports in the Chicago area for 47 years, including baseball, hockey, football and Athletes Unlimited Softball League. He covered the Chicago Cubs in their historic run to the World Series title in 2016. He has written stories for Athletes Unlimited since 2020.
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