导出博客文章TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- If a particularly brave soul could have made good money
betting on the Chicago Bandits to even reach the National Pro Fastpitch
championship series, as their coach suggested of a team that had a losing record
in the regular season, imagine the fortune available in predicting the identity
of the pitcher who would make them back-to-back champions.Not Monica Abbott, the
pitcher who led the Bandits to a title a year ago and then departed.Not Jennie
Finch, the retired ace whose name adorns the street outside the teams
stadium.Not even a pitcher who was on the teams roster, or any NPF roster, when
the season began.But for a night, Angel Bunner was the only pitcher who
mattered.For six innings, Bunner kept the best lineup in the sport at bay and
got the better of far her more recognizable counterpart in the pitching circle,
Keilani Ricketts. Released by the Pennsylvania Rebellion before the start of the
2015 season and still out of work as this season began, Bunner had as much to do
with a 2-1 win over the USSSA Pride in a winner-take-all finale as any player on
the field Tuesday.Without a player who waited so long to make it back to the
league, the Bandits wouldnt be back-to-back champions.Its a dream, so of course
I would imagine it, Bunner said of her journey to a confetti-strewn field and a
trophy. But making it a reality was a lot different.Bunner worked six innings,
the longest stint of any pitcher on either team in the best-of-three
championship series. She allowed eight hits but just a solitary run.Most
Valuable Player honors deservedly went to Bandits outfielder Brittany Cervantes,
the veteran cornerstone who followed Taylor Edwards with the second of
back-to-back home runs in the top of the third inning this night and hit .500 in
the postseason. But a day after the Bandits talked about using all available
arms to try to get through seven innings against the regular-season champions,
they kept giving the ball back to Bunner. Inning after inning after inning.We
talked last night, and we said once through the order and then maybe a couple of
lefties, Bandits coach Mike Steuerwald said of the Bunner plan. We had six of
our seven pitchers hot pretty much from the fourth inning on. It was talking to
Bunner and talking to [catcher Edwards]. Part of it is the relationship weve
built even in her short time here. Ive learned to trust her. Shes learned to
trust me. And if she cant go another batter, come talk to me.It sounded as if
the very first batter Bunner faced had hit a ball bound for the seats beyond the
outfield fence, but that blast from Megan Wiggins in the bottom of the first
inning tailed into a routine fly out on a stifling night when, Edwards and
Cervantes aside, the ball didnt carry. There was more of that each time the
Pride batted, fly balls to the warning track and line drives ripped right at
fielders.Bunner didnt dominate. She persevered.Shes pitched well against us
pretty much the whole year, since she joined the Bandits, said the Prides Kelly
Kretschman, who provided her teams only run with a fifth-inning home run. I dont
think we were surprised by anything. She kind of just goes at you, and Here it
is; hit it.But she did a great job against ScrapYard, and she did a good job
tonight, too.The story of Chicagos season was destined to be about pitching, no
matter how unlikely it was that Bunner would emerge the protagonist in the end.
The Bandits lost more than Abbott after last seasons title. Longtime standouts
Amber Patton and Tammy Williams retired, but it was the best pitcher in the
sport leaving for a million dollar contract with the expansion ScrapYard Dawgs
that seemed likely to define her former teams season for better or for
worse.After a decent start to the season, the Bandits stumbled to eight losses
in nine games as June came to a close, the last five losses by a 51-3 margin. It
was at that point that they reached out to Bunner, nearly two calendar years
removed from her most recent NPF innings.Signing her was probably a big key to
turning our season around, Steuerwald said. Obviously losing Monica [after] last
year is a big dent to your pitching staff. And we werent playing good softball
at the time, so we needed to do something. She was someone weve discussed in the
past bringing in and just wasnt a fit in previous seasons with teams we had at
that point.We had the thought that shes been out for a year, shes probably ready
to go. Maybe not physically as much, but she wants to get after it again. We
needed a bit of that on this team.Now 26 years old, Bunner was living at home in
Florida with her parents while waiting for another start. She never made the
mental transition to a post-softball life. She wanted to keep playing. She
reached out to teams, and Steuerwald said players in the league reached out on
her behalf.It was hard, Bunner said. I mean, I love the sport. And Im dedicated
to a team, and I want a team to be dedicated to me. So it was really hard when I
got released. But if thats what they felt was best, then thats what they needed
to do.The call finally came.In her first game back, Bunner gave up hits to the
first three batters she faced against the Akron Racers. She gave up eight hits
in less than three innings. But with some help from the pitchers who followed
her, the Bandits still won that game. She finished the regular season with just
one win but had one of the best ERAs on the team.So when it came to the decision
of who to start Tuesday night, the choice was the same as it had been two days
earlier in an elimination game against Abbott and the Dawgs.Im not going to lie,
Im not normally nervous, but I was extra nervous, Bunner said of Tuesday. I had
a group of pitchers standing behind me, and the first thing they said to me when
we got here was No matter what happens, we all got your back. So going into the
game, I just used that mentality that if I got into trouble, I knew there was
another pitcher coming in behind me.Except that none of them did, not until
rookie Shelby Turnier entered in the seventh -- Bunner the first to give her a
high-five as she took the field. So good throughout the postseason, Turnier
retired the Pride in order in the seventh for her second save in as many
days.The game ended with Kretschman on deck, the one batter who got to Bunner
all night, waiting for another chance in the stadium that didnt even exist when
she first arrived at Alabama as a college freshman two decades ago. There was no
one better equipped to put into perspective the most recent installment of the
best rivalry that not enough people in sports know about. Players from both
sides made the same comparison, the Pride as the New York Yankees and the
Bandits as the Boston Red Sox from the height of that rivalry a decade ago. Its
what we do, finding a more familiar comparison point to explain womens
sports.But the truth is this rivalry stands on its own. The mutual respect and
mutual dislike of perfect foils.I would have liked to be on some other ends of
wins, but youve got to enjoy [it], Kretschman said. I think this is probably the
most fun championship Ive played in my entire time being in this league. Because
it wasnt about whos pitching on their team and whos pitching on [our] team. It
was about two great teams going at it and what best team was going to win it.
Not who was pitching. I think thats a huge difference in whats gone on in the
league in the past.It was a game in which a pitcher entered anonymous and earned
her headlines.Which in its own way summed up how a group of 23 players earned a
championship together.
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CHICAGO -- The Latest on Bulls star Dwyane Wades call for Chicago to toughen gun
laws (all times local):12:30 p.m.The Chicago Police Department has released a
statement in response to Dwyane Wades call for tougher gun laws, saying officers
are waging an unwavering fight against criminals but need help.The statement
from department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says making the city safer will
depend on strong partnerships with the community.He says the fight against
violent offenders who torment neighborhoods with gun violence is
unwavering.Guglielmi adds that police need help to ensure these individuals stay
off our streets after repeated arrests for guns.Wade is speaking out a week
after his cousin, Nykea Aldridge, was fatally shot in the head while pushing her
baby in a stroller in Chicago. Police say she was not the intended target.
Aldridge was one of 90 people killed in August aalone in the
city.dddddddddddd---8 a.m.Dwyane Wade is lashing out against his hometown of
Chicagos gun laws, calling them weak and saying hes urged city officials to
enact changes.The Chicago Bulls star also says his children are afraid of police
the same way he was growing up and that Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump tweeting about the murder of his cousin last week left him with a bad
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one day before the funeral for his cousin Nykea Aldridge -- a mother of four who
was shot and killed on a Chicago street last week.Aldridge was one of 90 people
killed in August alone in Chicago.Wade is returning to Chicago this season after
13 years starring for the Miami Heat. ' ' '
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