Erin Coffel leading powerful Bandits offense in hitting -- in more ways than one

The Bandits have the best offense in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, but sometimes it hurts.

They lead the AUSL in several offensive categories, including runs, hits, home runs, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The trade-off for that sweet swinging is that the Bandits -- well, one player in particular -- get hit by a lot of pitches.

Infielder Erin Coffel has been hit a league-leading 13 times in 19 games, including 12 times in her last 14 games. Nobody else in the AUSL has more than seven HBPs, and only one player even has as many walks.

Coffel's Bandits beat the Volts 9-2 in Round Rock, Texas, on Friday, and yes, Coffel was hit by a pitch. They'll play the Talons in the championship series beginning next weekend.

"It just kind of happened, and not intentionally," Coffel's father, Rob Coffel, told MLB.com about his daughter's HBP tendencies. "She must stand close to the home plate, though we never did any of that intentionally early in her career."

Coffel is no stranger to taking one for the team. In four years at the University of Kentucky, she was hit 38 times, including 15 in both her freshman and senior seasons. Last year, in another interation of AUSL, she led the league with seven HBPs.

Her father is correct in that she doesn't crowd the plate, but pitchers often pitch her inside because her plate coverage is elite. Coffel has several opposite-field extra-base hits this season, and she can easily turn on inside pitches, so there's no great way of attacking her.

"There may have been a point where she didn't hit well (on) the inside pitches so that when (pitchers) went in there, there wasn't much room for error," Rob Coffel said. "I think it's simply a byproduct of being a successful power hitter and on top of the plate."

Coffel leads the AUSL with 25 RBIs in 46 at-bats. Her five home runs trail two Bandits teammates, Morgan Zerkle and Bubba Nickles-Camarena, and the Volts' Amanda Lorenz. She's batting .457 and has been on base in all 19 games she's played.

Coffel was a three-time first-team All-American at Kentucky, where she left in 2024 holding school records for home runs (68), RBIs (212), walks (155) and slugging percentage (.785). The power is her true calling card, but in making a mark in college and the pros, a few have been left on her, too.

Fortunately, Coffel hasn't sustained any serious injuries from being hit by a pitch.

"Her freshman year at UK she got hit a lot and that was really the first time it was noticed," Rob Coffel said. "Then it was a steady theme in her career since."

For some perspective, Coffel's current rate equates to more than 110 HBPs over a 162-game Major League season. Only two players in MLB history have been hit more than 40 times in a season -- Hughie Jennings, who exceeded that total three times in the 19th century, and Ron Hunt, who was hit 50 times in 1971 and led the National League in HBPs every year from 1968-74.

If anyone knows how Coffel feels, it might be Hunt, who's now 84 and who discussed his painful feat with the New York Times News Service in 1987, offering some tips that Coffel could take to heart.

"I studied the rule book, and it said that you have to make an attempt to get out of the way of the ball," Hunt said. "I practiced in front of a mirror. I lined up everything right at where the corner of the plate would be, my shoulders and elbows and hips and ankles, and then twisted toward the catcher.

"I didn't move out of the way, but I moved. That's an attempt."

Talons 3, Blaze 2

The Talons escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh, holding on for their 16th win in 21 games.

Maya Brady, the niece of Tom Brady who made her AUSL debut this week after a return from injury, had two hits and an RBI for the Talons. She had reached base in 10 of her plate appearances this season, with seven hits and three walks, before striking out looking in the seventh inning.

Sydney Romero also had two hits for the Talons.