Coming off their first win in franchise history Monday evening, the Blaze are off to Chattanooga, Tennessee, this weekend for a series against the Talons, who also enter with a 1-2 record.
The Talons opened the season by losing two out of three against the Bandits in Rosemont, Illinois, including an 8-0, five-inning defeat Tuesday night. Mariah Lopez struggled in an abbreviated start in the rubber game of that series, and the Talons were held to three hits, all of them singles.
But Head Coach Howard Dobson’s squad can still beat teams in a lot of ways. Tori Vidales is off to a hot start at the plate, as is rookie outfielder Sierra Sacco, who hit the first home run in league history Saturday in her first professional at-bat. The Talons have an excellent lineup from top to bottom, also featuring Hannah Flippen, Sharlize Palacios, Caroline Jacobsen and rookie Bri Ellis — the 2025 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year at Arkansas.
Sacco, Palacios and Flippen had two hits apiece in the Talons’ 6-3 win last Sunday, and Vidales and Ali Aguilar both homered. Rookie pitcher Raelin Chaffin, who played with Sacco at Mississippi State, earned the win in relief. Former Alabama superstar Montana Fouts struck out two batters in a perfect seventh to record the save.
Lauren Derkowski, a rookie out of Michigan, rounds out the Talons’ pitching staff before reinforcements — Megan Faraimo and Georgina Corrick — arrive soon from Japan.
“We have to take care of the little things,” Blaze Head Coach Alisa Goler said. “We’re not going to be able to do (the) big picture (things) if we can’t do the little things. It doesn’t necessarily mean (if) we didn’t field a bunt correctly, we need to do an hour of bunt defense, but we need to all be on the same page in what has to happen for us to be successful.”
It was an inconsistent weekend for the Blaze at the plate against the Volts. Through three games, the Blaze are last in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and they are the only team that has yet to hit a home run. But their approach at the plate has still been solid, particularly by Baylee Klingler, Anissa Urtez and rookie Ana Gold.
Klingler leads the Blaze with a 1.181 OPS. She spent the winter playing for the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican Softball League, leading the league with 32 runs batted in. Goler credited that experience for Klingler remaining locked in to start the summer.
“It was really helpful for her that she played in that Mexican League,” Goler said. “I don’t think she’s missed a beat. She told me that she feels like her best self right now, and I think that is tied to the fact that she was able to incorporate that in her offseason training.”
Emma Lemley, the Blaze’s first-round pick in the AUSL College Draft out of Virginia Tech, helped lead the Blaze to their first win with five innings of one-run ball Monday against the Volts. The other starters, Aleshia Ocasio and Keilani Ricketts, had inconsistent results against a powerful Volts lineup.
This weekend’s series will be played at Jim Frost Stadium, home to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team. Friday’s game is at 6:30 p.m. ET, with Saturday’s game at 12 p.m. and Sunday’s game at 2 p.m. The Saturday game will be televised on ESPNU, with the other two games available for streaming on MLB.com.
“We have to keep working toward cohesiveness,” Goler said. “Just going to try to keep chugging along in the right direction and giving (the players) what they feel like they need. But we’re not far off.”
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.
