Jocelyn Erickson Bandits AUSL Play-In Win
How the first-team All-SEC catcher set the table for Chicago’s walk-off win in the longest game in AUSL history — and what it teaches every catcher about reading the game from anywhere on the field.
Two days ago, we wrote that Jocelyn Erickson and the Chicago Bandits had one game to get through. On Wednesday July 23, at Davis Diamond in College Station, Texas, they got through it.
The Bandits beat the Portland Cascade 6-5 in eleven innings — the longest game in AUSL history — and the winning rally in the bottom of the eleventh started with their catcher.
Here is how it played out. The AUSL extra-innings rule places a runner at second base to open each half-inning, and Erickson was that runner. The night air at Davis Diamond was warm and still. Mary Iakopo stepped in and laid down a sacrifice bunt, moving Erickson to third. Then Taryn Kern drove an RBI double into the outfield gap. Erickson scored, tying the game at 5-5. Kern advanced to third. Then Ailana Agbayani stepped in and singled down the first-base line, scoring Kern with the walk-off run. Bandits 6, Cascade 5.
Erickson did not hit the walk-off. She set the table for it — scoring the tying run that gave her team one more chance, then trusting her teammates to finish the job she started.
The Bandits came in as the No. 2 seed at 17-9. Portland was No. 3 at 14-11. Neither team gave an inch until the final out of the eleventh inning.
Next up: the Utah Talons, beginning July 25. Sharlize Palacios — the Talons’ catcher and a name we have been watching all season — will be on the other side of the plate for the AUSL Championship Series.
What a catcher can learn from this
Catchers control the game from behind the plate. Call the pitch. Frame the corner. Block the ball in the dirt. Every instinct the position trains into you is about deciding what happens next.
The extra-innings baserunning situation stripped all of that away. Erickson was not calling anything. She was the runner at second, ninety feet from keeping her team’s season alive, with exactly two things to do: move on the bunt and score when the ball found the gap. The decision-making was somebody else’s. Her job was to execute her piece and trust the players behind her.
The best catchers are the best game-readers on the field — not just from behind the plate, but from any base, on any play. The first-team All-SEC catcher from Florida knew the situation before the pitch was thrown. She had already done the math: bunt, advance, score. When Kern’s double cleared the infield, Erickson was running. When Agbayani’s single came down the line, Kern was on her way home.
Your job does not end when you hand the gear back to the dugout. A catcher understands the game well enough to play it from anywhere on the field. The next time you are on the bases, read the play before it happens. That habit does not stay at second base. It comes back with you behind the plate.
Try this at your next practice
- The bunt-and-go read. Have a partner at second base and a coach lay down a bunt toward first or third. The runner at second must decide before the bunt is fielded whether to advance to third. Run it at game speed — the rule is commit before the fielder touches the ball. This trains exactly the pre-pitch anticipation Erickson used in the 11th.
- Baserunning situation cards. Before practice, make five index cards: each one describes a base-out situation (runner on second, one out, score tied in the 7th, etc.). Pull a card, put a runner on the right base, and run the play. Have the runner verbalize what they expect to happen before the pitch. Catchers especially benefit from this — it builds the same game-reading habit they use calling pitches from behind the plate.
- Catch and call from third. In practice, after blocking or receiving drills behind the plate, rotate your catcher to third base for one inning of live situational work. The exercise forces the catcher to read the game from a new angle — and it usually reveals how much (or how little) they understand about what the third baseman is seeing.
Sources: Chicago Bandits advance to AUSL Championship in 11-inning win, Agbayani hits walk-off 1B as Bandits advance to AUSL championship series, Jocelyn Erickson — Player Profile (AUSL).
