In reality, these are the final two games of the Athletes Unlimited Softball season, and what a season it was. While a champion was crowned this season, we also saw a couple of champions of softball call it a career. Without further ado, let us recap the last two games of season three.
Game Twenty-Nine: Team Denham Victorious over Team McCleney 6-3
In this case, pitcher Alyssa Denham entered the game atop the leaderboard as she started in the circle. She went four innings, allowing three runs on three hits, and striking out one for her team. All three runs allowed by Denham came in the fourth inning. Haylie McCleney’s team had RBIs from Andrea Filler, Nadia Taylor, and Abby Ramirez in the fourth. Also, Rachel Garcia picked up the third save of her young career in the win.
Team Denham’s offense began with three runs in inning number one with an RBI double by Tori Vidales and a two-run homer by DJ Sanders. In addition, Danielle Gibson added another homer as Sahvanna Jaquish and Aubrey Leach also drove in runs. Shifting gears, we saw the end of the amazing career of pitcher Danielle O’Toole.
O’Toole was given a well-deserved standing ovation as she exited the game. The lefty finished her Athletes Unlimited Softball career with 130 innings pitched over three seasons, the most all-time.
Standing ovation for you, @Oh_tooly3.
— Athletes Unlimited (@AUProSports) August 28, 2022
You are leaving this game better than you found it 💜#BeUnlimited | #AUSB pic.twitter.com/dhE7ifHobf
O’Toole overtook the 124.1 career innings pitched by Aleshia Ocasio. What’s more, O’Toole’s 84 career strikeouts are good for third place on the all-time career list in Athletes Unlimited Softball.
Game Thirty: Team Mulipola takes the 10-6 win over Team Chidester in Season Three Finale
Finally, this game had everything such as a weather delay and the last hurrah from a softball great. Overall, Dejah Mulipola‘s team got three RBIs from Sydney Romero, two each from Victoria Hayward and Mia Davidson. Additionally, Sierra Romero and Mulipola added the other two RBIs. Another run came off a throwing error in the fifth inning.
For Amanda Chidester’s team, it was the bats of Bubba Nickles, Jazmyn Jackson, and the captain herself offensively. Unquestionably, the final at-bat of Chidester’s career will be remembered for some time.
Down two strikes at the plate, Chidester had one more “Chiddy bomb” left in her. She hit down the left field line in the seventh inning to the cheers of the fans in Rosemont, Illinois. Without question, it was a Hollywood-ending fit for the career of Chidester.
.@chiddy3 crushes a walk-off HR in her final at-bat to cap off a stellar career 👏
— espnW (@espnW) August 29, 2022
(via auprosoftball/Instagram) pic.twitter.com/7azuWtMgFv
Mulipola makes history as a champion
Prior to the start of the season, I stated my case for Mulipola to be one of the favorites to win it all here. All things considered, she was arguably the best player throughout the season. On top of winning the season, she became the first player in league history to win the triple crown in the process. Here, she led all players in home runs (nine), RBIs (19), and batting average (.432).
Your 2022 Athletes Unlimited Softball Champion@dejahmulipola 👑 pic.twitter.com/aOPKmjcVk8
— Athletes Unlimited (@AUProSports) August 29, 2022
Mulipola became the first non-pitcher to win in the three-year history of Athletes Unlimited Softball. We have to wait until 2023 to see if she can make history in winning back-to-back seasons.
