There hasn’t been much to separate the Bandits and Talons all season long in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.
So it continued this past weekend in Omaha, where the first-place Talons took two of three from the Bandits to take a three-game lead in the standings heading into the homestretch.
The Talons (14-4) have already clinched a spot in the inaugural AUSL Championship, while the Bandits (11-7) are close to punching their ticket to Tuscaloosa for the best-of-three series from July 26-28.
But the Bandits aren’t there yet, and there were a few causes for concern at Connie Claussen Field in Omaha. The Bandits dropped the final game of the three-game set against the Talons, committing three errors in a 6-3 defeat.
For the season, the Bandits and Talons split eight games, with the Bandits scoring 45 runs to the Talons’ 31.
The weekend in Omaha was a memorable one. Here is how it played out:
Playoff-like atmosphere
The Bandits fell behind 5-0 in the fourth inning in the series opener Friday night. Starting pitcher Taylor McQuillin gave up back-to-back home runs to Jadelyn Allchin and Hannah Flippen in the third inning. A leadoff homer by Caroline Jacobsen to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning ended McQuillin’s night in favor of Lexi Kilfoyl.
The Bandits rallied with six runs in the top of the fifth inning, sending nine batters to the plate, with the big hit being a three-run homer by Bubba Nickles-Camarena.
Sierra Sacco tied the game in the seventh inning with a solo homer off Lexi Kilfoyl. The Bandits got a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Danielle Gibson-Whorton, who came to the Bandits earlier in the day in a trade with the Blaze in exchange for Devyn Netz. But the Talons scored twice in the bottom of the inning to win it.
“It was a great softball game,” said Bandits Head Coach Stacey Nuveman Deniz. “As we would say in college, that was a postseason softball game. That was a championship-series softball game of two battle-tested teams battling it out, slugfest, whatever you want to call it.”
Bubba reaches for the stars
There’s no question Bubba Nickles-Camarena had flown under the radar in a Bandits lineup that is stacked 1-9. But she soared high on Saturday night, hitting a pair of homers in a 9-1 run-rule victory.
“You kind of have to have a short memory in this league with how many games there are in such a short amount of time,” she said. “Definitely having coaching and teammates that remind me of the process and to continue moving forward has been crucial because ultimately it doesn’t even matter what I did yesterday or what any of us did yesterday or what just even happened today. We still have tomorrow and the next games, just having that short-term memory, focusing on what’s ahead and staying dialed with that.”
The Bandits also got home runs from Morgan Zerkle and Erin Coffel. Odicci Alexander pitched four innings, giving up three hits and one run. Sarah Willis finished with two innings of hitless ball.
The offense of the Bandits established a season high with eight extra-base hits, with four doubles and four homers.
The error(s) of their way
The Bandits took a brief 2-1 lead in the third inning of Sunday afternoon’s game on a two-run homer by Skylar Wallace.
But things fell apart in the bottom half, when the Talons sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs, three earned against Alexander, who replaced starter Lexi Kilfoyl to start the inning.
The Bandits committed two errors in the inning, one by Alexander and one by left fielder Zerkle, who had two for the game.
The Talons scored another run in the fourth, and reliever Raelin Chaffin held the Bandits at bay after that, with four innings of one-hit, one-run ball.
Bandits make a trade
Before the series got underway, the Bandits made a deal on Friday, the day of the trade deadline. They sent infielder-pitcher Netz to the Blaze for infielder Gibson Whorton.
“It was a learning experience for everybody, from the GM all the way to the equipment manager on our team,” Nuveman Deniz said. “It’s just not something that’s been done in our sport. For our team, it’s the first trade we’ve experienced. And so there was some emotion. As a staff, I’d like to think we handled it as well as we could have, as far as sitting down with our team, sitting down with the core group of our leadership and saying, ‘This is what’s happening. I want you guys to know. We want to get in front of it,’ not explaining why, but just giving it some context.”
As with any trade in any sport, the Bandits had to give up something to get something. There was also the emotional factor of trading away Netz.
“Two things were sure to be true: No. 1, the love and respect for Devyn was high,” Nuveman Deniz said. “So the sadness and the disappointment of seeing her go was real. The feels that everybody had for her, knowing it was a hard thing. She had to go to a whole new team. She’s got to hop on a plane at 5 a.m. to go to Seattle, literally 10 hours from that moment she found out, was pretty heavy. Her contributions and her connection to her teammates here was the real deal. So it was hard.
“On the flip side, the respect and love and admiration, if I’m being honest, for Gibby was also very clear because once the sadness kind of subsided, the excitement also became very obvious to me. And I didn’t know Gibby personally. I knew her just through softball. But I had never had a conversation with her. Everyone was like, ‘Oh, Nuvey, you’re going to love her. She’s so amazing. She’s so great.’
“She’s come in and made an immediate impact, but also just who she is, her character, her maturity, experience, all those things, someone who’s been around the block, isn’t intimidated by big moments. I think in this case, both players win. We’re happy to have her, excited for what she is going to do for us in this home stretch.”
Bruce Miles has covered sports in the Chicago area for 46 years, including baseball, hockey, football and Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball. 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. Follow Bruce on Bluesky @brucemiles2112.bsky.social and X @brucemiles2112
