After a rough weekend for the Blaze’s pitching staff, help will soon be on the way.
It didn’t seem to matter who was in the circle. Outside of a solid relief outing from Hope Trautwein-Valdespino in the series opener, the Talons jumped all over the entire staff, putting up 31 runs en route to a three-game sweep in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Talons scored early, with a combined 10 first-inning runs, but they also won two games on go-ahead home runs in the seventh.
Rookie Emma Lemley delivered a pair of strong relief appearances after an abbreviated start in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. But both Brooke McCubbin and Aleshia Ocasio struggled to command the strike zone, and Keilani Ricketts gave up too much hard contact in her 3 ⅔-inning start in the middle game.
As the Blaze (1-5) head back to Wichita, Kans. to battle the Volts on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, their pitching staff will get a pair of much-needed reinforcements. Alana Vawter and Carley Hoover just wrapped up the first half of the Japan Diamond Softball League season and will join the Blaze at Wilkins Stadium.
“We’re looking forward to getting them,” Head Coach Alisa Goler said. “Besides the fact that they’re good arms, nobody in the league has had at-bats off them. I don’t think everyone understands that. That’s a big deal.”
The Blaze will need Vawter and Hoover to eat up innings and be in top form. Their 7.49 team ERA is last in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, and they have also allowed the most walks (28) and most home runs (nine) through six games.
Vawter and Hoover will replace McCubbin and Trautwein-Valdespino on the roster. Vawter was an outstanding college pitcher at Stanford and South Carolina, with a career 1.82 ERA. A ground-ball specialist, she did not put up extreme strikeout totals but recorded nearly 47 percent of her outs on the ground over five seasons with the Cardinals and Gamecocks.
Hoover was taken second overall in the AUSL Allocation Draft and has also played for the Cleveland Comets in the National Pro Fastpitch. She struck out 754 batters in 684 innings at LSU from 2015 to 2018 and was the 2022 JDSL Player of the Year after winning the pitching Triple Crown with 18 wins, 198 strikeouts and a 1.66 ERA. Hoover had another excellent year in Japan in 2024, striking out 115 batters in 84 innings with a 2.08 ERA.
“All these other pitchers, they’ve seen them, they’ve hit off them in previous years,” Goler said. “We’ve got two where while there might be a video scout, nobody’s been through it yet. It’s going to be a big deal when they come back.”
Offensively, the Blaze are looking for more of the same after scoring nearly nine runs per game last weekend. Baylee Klingler, who drove in 11 runs in the series, leads the AUSL in all three triple slash categories with a .636 batting average, .667 on-base percentage and 1.000 slugging percentage. She also leads the league in hits, RBI and total bases.
The Volts (2-4) were also on the wrong end of a sweep last weekend as the Bandits took all three games from them in Sulphur, La. They dropped an extra-inning affair in the series opener, then scored just one run over the final two games. But they opened the season by taking two of three from the Blaze in Wichita and have no shortage of power threats in their lineup.
Tiare Jennings and McKenzie Clark have each homered twice for the Volts, who also have Amanda Lorenz, Rachel Garcia, Jessi Warren and Sierra Romero. Garcia and Peyton Gottshall have carried the Volts’ pitching staff, with help from rookie Sam Landry.
The Blaze had just one day off between series, and will play six games in seven days in Wichita to conclude the first half of their inaugural season.
“We have to put a premium on sleep and getting proper rest,” Goler said. “We’ve got phenomenal trainers, strength coaches, all of them, they know exactly what to do to help them with the recovery. It is a tight turnaround. If rest is more important than getting some swings, then you go do that. They know what they need.”
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.
