The Portland Cascade and Chicago Bandits met in the first ever Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) play-in game last night. The Portland Cascade jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on an RBI double from Sydney Stewart and an RBI single from Kenleigh Cahalan in the first inning. The Cascade would add another run in the fourth inning on an RBI single from Tori Vidales. The Bandits offense would finally figure out Carley Hoover in the fifth inning and tag her for 3 runs to tie the game on a bases-loaded walk by Skylar Wallace, and a two-run single from Morgan Zerkle. The next two innings would have no scoring and this game headed to extra innings after some stellar defense by the Cascade in the 7th when Kendra Falby threw out Skylar Wallace trying to advance to third on a Morgan Zerkle fly ball for the final out of the inning. In the eighth inning both teams got a run. The Cascade got their run on an error by Sami Williams over at 3rd base but the Bandits still had a chance to win it. In the bottom of the 8th Taryn Kern hit an RBI single with the winning run being cut down at the plate on a perfect throw from Korbe Otis in right field.The next two extra innings both teams would be held scoreless with Lexi Kilfoyl getting some help from her own plays in the circle in the top of the ninth, and in the bottom of the ninth Kenzie Brown would throw up a scoreless inning for the Cascade after they went into two very short rain delays of 5 minutes or less for each. In the tenth inning Lexi Kilfoyl once again threw up a scoreless inning striking out the 3 and 4 hole hitters Megan Grant and Sydney Stewart before Kenleigh Cahalan reached on an error by Sami Williams at third and then Kendra Falby grounded out to end the inning. In the bottom of the tenth Kenzie Brown struck out Morgan Zerkle, got a groundout from Jessica Clements, and got Jocelyn Erickson to popout to shortstop. In the top of the 11th inning the Cascade would get one run after Sis Bates reached on a dropped third strike then Lexi Kilfoyl would get Tori Vidales to flyout and Kennedy Powell to line out to third, and then Korbe Otis reached on an error by Skylar Wallace which scored Kendra Falby from third and gave the Cascade the lead back. In the bottom of the 11th the rookies came through for the Bandits with an RBI double from Taryn Kern to tie the game and then an RBI single from Ailana Agbayani to win the game and send the Bandits back to the Championship Series. The inaugural season for the Portland Cascade comes to a close in a heartbreaking loss, while the Bandits advance to meet the Utah Talons in the Championship Series that starts tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM EST broadcast on ABC.
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