The AUSL Saved Its Tightest Race for Last
A two-out walk-off, a 1-0 duel to close Series Three, and three captains drafting the last rosters of the AUSL season in Rosemont.
The AUSL's individual title is now a two-woman sprint with three games left.
Lead Off
Two away in the seventh, one run down, one strike from a loss. Baylee Klingler sent a 2–2 pitch over the center-field wall Saturday night at Parkway Bank Sports Complex to beat Team Landry 2–1 — capping a game that had just made history as the first in All-Star Cup play to stay scoreless through six innings. She followed it Sunday with a 1–0 win over Team Palacios, becoming the sixth player in league history to win her first four games as a captain and sweeping every available win point in all four. She enters the final week atop the individual leaderboard with 890 points, 24 clear of Lexi Kilfoyl.
Why it matters: The All-Star Cup awards an individual title, not a team one, and margins here have historically come down to a single play. With three games left, Klingler's cushion is roughly one good at-bat wide — and Kilfoyl now has her own roster to run. Source →
By the Numbers
4 — home runs hit by Team Landry in Friday's win, the most by one team in a game this All-Star Cup. The first six games of the event produced five homers combined. Source · AUSL
Scoreboard
Last 7 days — Series Three in Rosemont
| Final | Note |
|---|---|
| Team Landry 6–3 Team Palacios (Fri) | Stewart, Grant, Sherrill and Brito all go deep; three homers in the third. |
| Team Klingler 2–1 Team Landry (Sat) | Neither side scores until the seventh; Klingler ends it with two outs. |
| Team Klingler 1–0 Team Palacios (Sun) | Fiser and Kilfoyl combine on a two-hit shutout; the lone run is unearned. |
This week — 5 to watch
| When | What | Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Fri Aug 28 | Series Four opens: Klingler vs. Flippen, 7 p.m. ET | CBS Sports Net |
| Sat Aug 29 | Game 11: Flippen vs. Kilfoyl, 8 p.m. ET | MLB Network |
| Sun Aug 30 | Finale: Kilfoyl vs. Klingler, 8 p.m. ET | MLB Network |
| Tue Sep 1 | Coaches may contact the Class of 2028 | Recruiting |
| Through Sep 4 | Line Drive's 2028 HOT 100 countdown rolls out | linedrivemedia.com |
Three games left, a two-woman race at the top, and a recruiting calendar about to flip.
Hot Corner
1. Fiser and Kilfoyl two-hit Team Palacios to close Series Three
Chicago Bandits teammates Amber Fiser and Lexi Kilfoyl combined for a two-hit shutout Sunday, walking one and striking out five, while Kenzie Brown went the distance in a losing effort on 100 pitches. The only run scored in the first: Sydney Romero reached on an error and came home on a Klingler sacrifice fly. Kilfoyl took MVP 1 and 238 leaderboard points; Reese Atwood was Defensive MVP. Source →
2. Klingler, Kilfoyl and Flippen draft the final rosters
Monday's redraft set the last three teams of the season. Hannah Flippen rose to third with 750 points and, in Sunday's finale, became the second player in All-Star Cup history to reach 50 career game wins; she also owns a league-record four career Defensive MVP certificates. Klingler landed Georgina Corrick and Bri Ellis; Kilfoyl took Megan Grant and Sami Williams; Flippen drafted Maya Brady and Rachel Garcia. Source →
3. Team Landry's three-homer inning breaks the Cup's power drought
Sydney Stewart opened Friday with a two-run shot off Karlyn Pickens, then Megan Grant, Sydney Sherrill and Alyssa Brito all went deep in the third to make it 5–0, before Bella Dayton's fielder's choice capped the four-run inning at 6–0. Bubba Nickles-Camarena broke up the no-hit bid with a homer of her own, but Team Landry held on 6–3 behind four innings from Sam Landry and a three-inning save from Rachel Garcia. Source →
4. The coaching carousel keeps spinning into late August
Former MLB All-Star Billy Butler is joining Idaho State as hitting coach, one of a half-dozen moves reported in the past week. Ana Gold is headed to FIU, Vince Alessandrini was named head coach at Oakland, and Troy's Eric Newell, Utah Valley's Cody Thomson and Virginia Tech's Pete D'Amour all signed extensions. Source →
5. Recruiting's biggest month rolls on as the 2028 window opens
Line Drive Media added another 85 verbal commitments to its master list on Sunday, pushing the database past 3,800 committed players. The timing is deliberate: college coaches can contact the Class of 2028 starting Tuesday, Sept. 1, and Line Drive launched its 2028 HOT 100 countdown on Monday with Nos. 100–91. If you have a 2028 in the house, next week is the week. Source →
From the Dugout
Podcast pick: Everything Fastpitch — the Aug. 19 episode built around an interview with Ben Cattaruzzi, who coached Johnson County, N.C. to the Little League Softball World Series title, plus a segment on weather rules in school ball versus travel ball and an honest riff on not being able to please every parent. Takeaway: write your heat-and-lightning policy down before the season starts — the argument you avoid in July is the one you settled in February. Listen →
Clip of the week: @megremsoftball — Megan Remblack's drill-and-practice-plan feed is the rare big account that posts things a volunteer coach can actually run at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday with one bucket of balls. Worth a save before fall ball.
Play of the Week
Down to her last strike, the captain ends it herself
Six innings of nothing, then Megan Grant's solo shot in the top of the seventh looked like the whole ballgame. Ailana Agbayani bunted her way on in the bottom half and moved up on a throwing error, Landry retired the next two, and Klingler put it over the center-field wall. It was her first home run of the All-Star Cup, on a night worth 230 leaderboard points and first place.
Source: @theauslofficial · Watch the full clip →
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