Sports fans have been delivering handmade good luck charms to their favorite athletes for as long as most of us can remember. How many of them can say they worked?
There’s at least one softball fan who can, because prior to Thursday’s game, a makeup of a June 17 rainout, the Bandits’ official Instagram account posted a reel of players receiving some very sweet gifts -- friendship bracelets in team colors, complete with their names and jersey numbers -- hours before they'd take home an 8-4 victory over the Talons.
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(As an aside: Credit to this fan, whose identity remains private, for nailing the brief. After all, friendship bracelets have had an incredible comeback -- thank you, Eras Tour -- as symbols of girlhood, and what’s more evocative of girlhood than an afternoon softball game? Nothing, as far as we're concerned.)
After two innings, the Bandits found themselves already trailing, 4-1, at which point center fielder Morgan Zerkle got to work single-handedly chipping away at the deficit, first with a leadoff homer in the top of the third. An inning later, she came up again, this time with the bases loaded and nobody out, and smashed a game-tying single.
The Bandits were able to load the bases again in the sixth -- again with no outs in the inning -- this time for Erin Coffel, who, after having her first home run of the season overshadowed by a tough walk-off loss on Wednesday, casually responded with a game-winning grand slam.
That leaves Coffel an astonishing 9-for-18 to start the season with three doubles, two triples, two homers, and an AUSL-leading 13 runs batted in. For her part, Zerkle’s third home run of the year kept her in a tie with the Volts’ Tiare Jennings at the top of the leaderboard.
All four teams will be back in action on Friday night, with the Bandits and Blaze squaring off on ESPNU at 7 p.m. ET and the Talons taking on the Volts at 8:30 p.m. ET, streaming on MLB.com and MLB.TV.