What does a softball player do during an almost four-and-a-half-hour rain delay?
“I took a little nap in the locker room, a 15-minute nap,” said Chicago Bandits third baseman Sami Williams. “We just tried to relax. When you’re not sure how long the delay is going to be, you want to be hyped for the game, but you want to make sure you maintain your energy throughout the day.”
Williams was wide awake at the right time as she hit a walk-off two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Bandits to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Texas Volts at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Illinois.
Because of rain and lightning, the game scheduled for 3:30 p.m. didn’t get underway until 7:48 p.m.
Williams made it worth the wait for the many fans who weathered the delay. The home run was her seventh of the season, and the two RBIs gave her 29, which eclipses last season’s record of 28, set by Bandits teammate Erin Coffel.
Asked if it’s a surreal feeling, Williams replied: “I try not to think about it too much and just stay locked in, clear mind, and try to stay focused. Yeah, not overthink it.”
Bandits coach Shonda Stanton quickly interjected.
“Not surreal here,” she said. “I expect it. Like every time she comes up, you expect her to do damage.”
The game featured a magnificent pitchers’ duel between the Bandits’ Lexi Kilfoyl and the Texas duo of Ally Carda and Aliyah Binford.
The Bandits took a 1-0 lead in the first inning before the Volts tied it with an unearned run in the fourth. Kilfoyl (3-0, 0.74 ERA) retired 11 straight batters entering the eighth inning, when the Volts went ahead 2-1 on an RBI double by Dejah Mulipola.
Carda went back out for the bottom of the eighth after Binford had worked three scoreless innings in relief of Carda, who started the game. With Ailana Agbayani placed at second base to start the inning, Skylar Wallace grounded out. Williams followed with her game-winning shot.
“I knew I didn’t need to do too much,” she said. “With the score, I wasn’t trying to do too much. I just wanted to do what I could to get one run in and have my team carry it on for the win.”
The victory was the fifth in a row for the Bandits (9-7) in an ever-tightening Athletes Unlimited Softball League race. The Volts, who had beaten Chicago twice in Texas earlier in the season, lost their sixth in a row to drop to 3-13.
“It’s tough,” said Volts head coach Ricci Woodard, who expressed her thanks to the fans for sticking around. “It’s one of the best games I feel we pitched, played. I thought we did a lot of good things in it. It just didn’t go our way. It just feels like we can’t buy a break at this point.”
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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