Aliyah Binford is a Bright Spot for the Volts
Aliyah Binford is a star for the Volts. We sat down to talk about her thoughts on the season and playing for something bigger than herself.
The Texas Volts currently sit at the bottom of the league rankings with a 3-11 record. Their three wins come from an 8-5 victory over the Oklahoma City Spark in their second game of the season, and wins over the Bandits last week by scores of 6-2 and 6-4.
Through 14 games, they have just 45 RBIs (second to last) and 47 runs (last in the league). The Volts are second to last in batting average with .246 and last in on-base percentage with .316. Of all players with at-bats with runners in scoring position, only five have hits.
From the pitching staff, they have the second-highest ERA with 4.58 and teams are hitting .285 against them.
Notable starts are lacking productive stats in the Volts lineup. Infielder and veteran Sierra Romero has only three hits on the season in 27 at-bats for a .111 batting average, compared to the .288 she hit last season.
After a late start with the team due to an unsigned contract, No. 2 draft pick NiJaree Canady has accumulated a 6.87 ERA in her first five appearances.
Do the Volts have anything going for them through this dry spell? Luckily, two-way player Aliyah Binford shines for the Volts and has shown promising stats thus far. I sat down with Aliyah to hear her perspective on the season, what’s been going well, her mindset, and everything in between.
A Hidden Gem
With the announcement of two new teams for the 2026 AUSL season, the Spark and the Cascade, the league held an expansion draft to select players to fill their rosters.
After the initial expansion draft, all six teams participated in the allocation draft. This consisted of players that had opted themselves in or 2025 reserve players.
Binford, who was reserved by the Blaze in July of 2025, was drafted by the Volts in the fourth round (No. 24 overall). She secured the last spot on the Volts roster.
Last season, Binford held a 4.61 ERA through 13.2 innings and hit .238. These stats are far from disappointing, but made her a reasonable late pickup in the draft. The Volts coaching staff likely didn’t consider Binford to make as much of an impact as she is now.
“I actually honestly expected not pitch a whole lot coming in,” Aliyah told me. “We joke about it to this day that I was honestly the fifth pitcher and I wasn’t going to be used as much. The fact that I’m pitching as much as I am is really satisfying to me.”
In the Circle
With a disappointing start from Canady, Binford has secured a spot at the Volts’ ace. Through six appearances, Binford has posted a 2.10 ERA, the lowest on the staff, ranking amongst the lowest in the league.
After coming in for relief last Tuesday against the Bandits, the Texas native secured the win, delivering three shutout innings and adding on a trio of strikeouts. She told me, “It feels good to be able to help my team, they’ve really just instilled so much confidence through my body and I love being able to get stuff done for them.”
“It’s been really fun and I can’t wait to get back to Chicago.” The Volts will travel to Rosemont for a three-game series starting on Saturday to attempt another sweep.
Through 23.1 innings, Binford has allowed just seven earned runs while collecting 14 strikeouts. When I asked her about her approach in the circle, she comes back to one main point. “I don’t think about a whole lot when I’m pitching. I listen to the music that’s playing in the background and I sing the song.”
“I really lock in with my catcher. Something that’s been really different for me this year is feeling very confident with my catcher. I’ve had a lot of comfortability and confidence just with the person that’s behind the plate.”
For Binford, it’s easy to drown out the distractions that come with playing in a professional stadium so she can focus on her pitching, just like it’s a bullpen in practice. “Me and [Michaela] (Edenfield), me and Dejah (Mulipola), sometimes I forget there’s an actual game behind me.”
A Two-Way Player Emerged
Binford may not be leading the league in innings pitched, but she spends the remainder of her time in the lineup.
There are few two-way players to reach the level that Binford is showing now. While playing in all 14 games, she has accumulated 12 hits in 42 at-bats and slashes .286/.302/.714.
She adds on five home runs, tied for second in the league, and three doubles, tied for third. Binford has added seven RBIs and eight runs. She leads the Volts in doubles, runs, and home runs. She is second in RBIs and hits, and third in average.
During her three flawless innings of relief last Tuesday, Binford hit two home runs and totaled three RBIs, contributing to half of the team’s RBIs that night.
I asked Aliyah how she balances an incredibly impressive season with frustrations in the game outcomes. “We’ve definitely been frustrated as a team, but being able to stay focused on the fact that I can do as much as I can do, my teammates can do as much as they can do, and we’re really just here trusting the process.”
Will Binford Be Enough?
There’s no doubt that the Volts need to step up their game. Opponents have scored a total of 83 runs against them, an average of 5.93 per game. Conversely, they’ve only scored 47 runs thus far, an average of 3.36 per game.
Aliyah tells me, “If people were to look at just our record, they’d miss the growth. We haven’t bowed out yet. We keep telling ourselves, honestly, if we win a couple more games we have a chance to be in playoffs.”
The great thing about AUSL is that the standings change after every series. No team is counted out until the very end, and watching the Volts push for a comeback will be an exciting thing to see.
“We haven’t given up, we’re just going to keep fighting the entire time. I love that about our team and I love that people don’t know that about us.”
With a league average of .267, the Volts have four starters hitting above this. The offense seen in Tuesday night’s matchup gives some hope If the Volts can continue to rally hits and score runs, let’s hope the pitching will follow.
Taking it Home
Binford is defying what is regularly known to the game of softball, and she plays for more than just herself.
When I asked about resilience, she said, “As a person who’s probably dealt with a lot of things that I need to be resilient with this year, I think it’s been more of a mental game for me.”
“This year, AU means a bit different to me than it probably would’ve last year.” Aliyah shared with me that she recently had a family member pass of ovarian cancer at age 17, and was a softball player herself who looked up greatly to Aliyah.
“This year I’m playing for her. I feel like she’s playing through me. This year it’s more of just being in the moment, doing something that she doesn’t get to do.” A beautiful honor for a heartbreaking loss.
To Binford, it’s also important to show young girls the future of a professional softball stage. “We’re building it and it’s going to be something, it’s big. We want this sport to grow, so this year I’ve really just been in the mindset of just playing for something bigger than myself.”
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Written by
Roxie Freifeld is an intern for Just Baseball, leading coverage of Athletes Unlimited Softball. A student-athlete at Oberlin College studying psychology and sports management, she is…