TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Players and fans have waited decades for a pro circuit like the Athletes Unlimited Softball League to come along, and unfortunately, due to some harsh Alabama summer rainstorms, they’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the entirety of Game 1 of the 2025 Championship Series.
Rain delayed the start of Saturday’s first game of the best-of-three-set between the Talons and Bandits, and then stopped action completely after the top of the sixth inning ended. The game will resume at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday with the Talons up, 3-1, entering the bottom of the sixth inning on ESPN2. Game 2 will begin at its scheduled time of 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.
ATHLETES UNLIMITED SOFTBALL LEAGUE
The first three innings of Game 1 was a pitchers' duel between two of the best pitchers in the league (and possibly, the world) in Georgina Corrick and Lexi Kilfoyl. Neither gave up a run through three frames.
Then, in the fourth inning, the bats woke up.
The Bandits’ Bubba Nickles-Camarena, who torched the Talons this year during the regular season with five of her seven homers, knocked in a run with an RBI single in the top of the inning. 1-0, Bandits.
But then, Tori Vidales -- she of one home run all season -- stepped up to the plate as the first batter in the bottom of the fourth inning. And now, well, she has two home runs. Including the first in AUSL Championship history.
The Talons rode that momentum by scoring two more in the bottom of the fifth once Kilfoyl came out of the game, one on a Caroline Jacobsen fielder’s choice and the other courtesy, once again, of Vidales. She hit a sacrifice fly into foul territory down the right-field line.
Corrick, the AUSL Pitcher of the Year, stayed in the game and settled down -- giving up just that one run through six.