Chicago Bandits’ Offensive Depth Powers Seven-Game Win Streak

The Chicago Bandits are red hot and showing no signs of slowing down. Rising to the top with a seven-game win streak, the Bandits are pushing their way into first place and gunning for a spot in the postseason.

The Bandits have swept their last three series over the Spark, Cascade, and Volts. This seven-game streak ties for second longest in Athletes Unlimited Softball League history.

With a current record of 11-7, the Bandits currently sit two games behind the Talons. But if this league has taught you anything, it’s that the standings change after every series, and statistical leaders emerge every day. 

The Bandits are truly a spectacle, producing mind-boggling offensive statistics. The best part is that every player is a contributor to these fiery Bandits.

With contributions all over the starting lineup, let’s take a deep dive into this outstanding offense and break down what keeps them going.

All stats were taken prior to play on July 7.

A League-Leading Offense

As a team, the Bandits hold a .325 batting average, soaring past the second-place Spark who hold a .285 average. They lead in on-base percentage with .416 and slugging percentage with .532.

The team also leads the league with 147 hits, 100 runs scored, and 96 RBIs. The Bandits have become the first team this season to reach 100 runs scored.

This team knows how to get on base and advance into scoring position. They’re second in walks with 52 and first in stolen bases with 14. 

Individually, an astounding seven players are hitting over .300. The top two — Skylar Wallace and Sami Williams — lead the league in batting average at .500 and .471, respectively.

The Bandits are breaking records and putting up remarkable and league-leading offensive stats. Wallace recorded a 17-game hitting streak in Sunday’s game, breaking the record previously held by Spark’s player Maya Brady.

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Talent Up and Down the Lineup

These Bandits have a deep and consistent lineup that is essential to winning ballgames. From Monday night’s game, head coach Shonda Stanton said, “I love the line on the bottom half of the lineup there with Bella [Dayton] Jess [Clements] and [Ailana Agbayani] …with two hits apiece.”

The last four hitters in Monday night’s lineup totaled for seven of the eight hits, going a combined 7-for-11. The remaining lineup went just 1-for-13.

“They created major traffic, we were able to get some sac flies, total team softball,” Stanton added. “What’s really cool is I can sit in here any given night and have different ball players next to me, that’s how talented this group is.”

Sheer offensive power from Wallace and Williams is always a great addition, but it propels the rest of the team to string hits together. “Sami and Skylar are big dogs and they can get the job done, but as you saw today, we were able to feed off of them and also do a job throughout the rest of the lineup,” Bella Dayon said.

Outstanding RBIs from Sami Williams

Sami Williams’ freakish talent could be one for the history books. Williams had a short AUSL appearance in 2021 after graduating from Iowa State University and didn’t return until this year.

Williams records 30 runs batted in, a number that has many doing a double take. With RBIs she leads the league by a margin of 12 and the team by 21. She accounts for about one third of the Bandits’ RBIs. 

The California native has a league-leading 24 hits, which is seven more than the second-place holder on the team. She holds another league-leading eight doubles, while the next only has five. 

Williams has recorded an RBI in nine of her last 10 games and has broken a record, becoming the first AUSL player to reach 30 RBIs in regular season history.

There’s More Than One Way To Win a Game

The Bandits have found themselves in all kinds of situations where victory wasn’t always clear. Monday’s win was the Bandits sixth come-from-behind win so far this season, claiming the sweep after trailing 5-1.

Morgan Zerkle drove in the last run of Monday’s game with a squeeze bunt. “We’ve been able to win games by coming from behind…we’ve had games where we run rule teams,” added Stanton.

“There’s a lot of triple threats at the plate. We have speed, we have power, we have everything, we have all the tools.” said Ailana Agbayani. 

“What you see up and down the lineup is we can score in numerous ways,” concluded Stanton.

Continuing the Streak

“Everything is about continuing the streak, everything is about staying in the moment,” Agbayani told Just Baseball. “All through the lineup just sticking to our plan and what we do has allowed us to be ahead in games, but also come back,” added Dayton.

After starting 0-4, the Bandits have done an excellent job at slowly rising to the stop before kicking it into high gear these past couple weeks.

This recent sweep over the Volts is a key sign that the team is heading in the right direction. After dropping both games of the opening series, the Bandits found their team momentum to take back the series.

“I think that we had a lot of new additions the first time we played the Volts, so we were trying to figure out where the energy lied…feeding off of each other and adding to what we were lacking,” said Dayton. “It was just a building block from there. We knew after the games what we wanted and what we were going for.”

The Bandits head out to Oregon to take on the Cascade again, who they just swept 13-3 and 11-3 both in five inning run rules.

The Bandits are proving to be ones to watch for postseason contention. With their current run, it likely could come down to their final regular game series against the Talons to decide who takes the number one spot heading into the championship in College Station.