It was a highly-anticipated matchup between star rookies each making their first professional start when the Blaze took on the Volts at Wilkins Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University on Monday night. And, as expected, it was a close and low-scoring affair to close out their AUSL season-opening series.
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In the end, the Blaze emerged victorious, 3-1, thanks in large part to the dominant performance of starting pitcher Emma Lemley -- the right-hander tossed five innings and gave up just one run on three hits, walking one and striking out two. She outdueled the No. 1 overall pick in last month's AUSL College Draft, Sam Landry, who just a week ago was pitching for Oklahoma in the Women's College World Series.
Lemley, who just completed a sensational collegiate career of her own at Virginia Tech, was tremendous on the mound. She also had some tremendous friends along with her for an in-game interview after she gave way to reliever Keilani Ricketts in the top of the sixth inning.
"This is Big Torchy and this is Little Torchy," Lemley said on the telecast as she held a large plush toy that resembles a flame in her left hand while a small plush flame sat on her left shoulder. "We're Blaze, so we've gotta have our mascots with us."
Those mascots were on hand for a great pitching matchup and some great defense to go along with it. With Lemley on the mound in the top of the fourth inning, third baseman Ana Gold made an incredible catch against the top of the visitors' dugout on a Kelsey Stewart Hunter pop-up.
Gold also had one of six hits for the Blaze, who played small ball to score twice in the bottom of the fourth. Aubrey Leach led off with a bunt single against Landry, who hadn't given up a hit to that point in the contest. The next batter, Kayla Kowalik, was hit by a pitch. Then Baylee Klingler legged out an infield single on a dribbler in front of the plate to load the bases.
Danielle Gibson Whorton -- who delivered a big RBI double on Opening Day in her first at-bat after becoming a mother -- then hit a ground ball that went off the second baseman's glove and into short right field to bring in the first run for the Blaze. Consecutive fielder's choice ground balls led to the second run coming in.
That's all Lemley needed, working around a two-on, none out situation to escape the fifth unscathed. The only blemish on her record was a solo home run off the bat of Tiare Jennings in the third.
In a showdown between top rookies, Lemley won Round 1 on Monday -- given how talented she and Landry are, it should be the first of many AUSL matchups to come.
After dropping the first two games of their season-opening series against the Volts, the Blaze picked up the first win in franchise history thanks to Lemley's stellar outing and some timely hitting.
"This team, I think, we have a lot of fight," Lemley said after the game. "We just needed to find it. ... We just needed to find that fighting fire in us. ... The third game of any series is gonna be a dogfight. I thought we fought really, really hard and we deserve this first win."