Following their first series win of the season against the Volts in Seattle last weekend, the Blaze continue their western swing with a trip to Salt Lake City, where they will battle the first-place Talons for a four-game series starting Wednesday evening.
The series will be a homecoming for Blaze infielder Anissa Urtez, who announced her retirement at summer’s end, as well as Talons infielder Hannah Flippen and pitcher Mariah Lopez. All three played college softball at Utah.
The Blaze (5-13) still have the worst pitching staff in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, but they are trending in the right direction after allowing just three combined runs in their last two games, both victories. Their team ERA of 6.98 is more than two and a half runs higher than the next-worst team, and they have had issues with both walks and home runs, but the return of left-hander Keilani Ricketts was a big boost.
Ricketts was excellent in her two relief appearances, and newcomers Aliyah Binford and Devyn Netz also pitched well. The Blaze have used 10 different pitchers this season, the most in the AUSL. But the staff has shown signs of rounding into form with Ricketts, Binford and Netz complementing Alana Vawter, Emma Lemley and Aleshia Ocasio. Binford, Netz and Ocasio are all two-way players, giving the Blaze more roster flexibility.
The Talons (14-4) have already clinched a spot in the AUSL Championship Series and have won all four meetings with the Blaze this season. That includes a three-game sweep in mid-June in Chattanooga, Tenn., in which the Talons put up 31 runs and hit seven home runs.
Caroline Jacobsen, Jadelyn Allchin and Flippen pace the powerful Talons’ offense, each carrying an OPS above 1.000. Ali Aguilar may be batting just .234, but she leads the Talons with four homers and has been hit by a pitch seven times, second-most in the league. Tori Vidales and rookie Sierra Sacco have also been strong at the plate.
Georgina Corrick (5-0, 2.52 ERA, 25 IP) leads the Talons’ pitching staff and has thrown the only two complete-game shutouts by any AUSL pitcher this season, both against the Volts. Montana Fouts recently returned from the Injured List and has pitched well, as has rookie Raelin Chaffin, Sacco’s former teammate at Mississippi State. Megan Faraimo has been hit hard at times, but still leads the Talons in innings pitched.
The Talons are not far removed from an eight-game winning streak that catapulted them past the Bandits to the top of the league standings. They scored at least eight runs in four of those games, and more high-scoring affairs seem likely in Salt Lake City, which sits more than 4,000 feet above sea level.
“The exposure is amazing all around, to be able to put Utah on this level on the map,” Urtez said. “I’m just excited to see all the fans come together, to be able to root for the Utes and to be able to root for the Blaze and the Talons, and see the little girls in the stands with those jerseys on with our last names. That’s what it’s all about.”
The Blaze exploded late for eight runs in the last two innings of Sunday’s win, with new faces like Binford, Netz and McKenzie Clark coming through.
Netz replaced the powerful bat of Danielle Gibson Whorton in a trade with the Bandits last Friday, and she has helped make the lineup complete, complementing mainstays like Aubrey Leach, Baylee Klingler, Korbe Otis and Ana Gold. The Blaze also activated catcher Taylor Edwards off the Injured List on Monday, giving them another option behind the plate with Kayla Kowalik.
Urtez and Flippen will surely both have large personal cheering sections at Dumke Family Softball Stadium after forming an elite middle infield for Utah from 2014 to 2017.
“Hannah’s a great teammate. She’s a great friend. She’s a great leader,” Urtez said. “I’m sad that she’s going to be on the other side of the field because I would love that shortstop-second base duo again (at) Dumke Family Softball Stadium, but this is just amazing.”
Benjamin Rosenberg is the Blaze beat reporter for the AUSL this season. He has more than seven years of experience covering college, professional and high school softball, and graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 2021.
