In the first of a three-game series taking place at the Women's National Team Training Camp this week, the Stripes used an all-around offensive explosion to overwhelm the Stars 16-1 and take a 1-0 lead into tomorrow.

As the final score would indicate, the Stripes jumped all over their opponents with the bats right from the first pitch. The team scored four runs in the game's opening frame, using two-out RBI base hits from Jade Gortarez, Olivia Pichardo, and Naomi Ryan to grab a big early lead.

After going dormant for the next few innings, the Stripes roared back to life in the fourth, putting up five more on the board to take full control of the game. London Studer and Ashton Lansdell got the rally going with a pair of one-out base hits, which set the table for Alex Hugo to drive a fly ball into the grass in left field for a double that scored the former and brought the latter to third. Jillian Albayati cashed in on her opportunity right after with a base hit to drive home both runners, and after Gortarez doubled for her second hit of the game to put another pair in scoring position, Kelsie Whitmore joined the action with a hard-hit sacrifice fly into center to bring home Albayati. Finally, Pichardo put the exclamation mark on the inning, crushing a triple into deep left-center to pick up another RBI.

Things wouldn't stop there, though, as the Stripes picked up right where they left off one inning later. The team once again put two runners on right away via a walk by Ryan and a base hit by Studer, and two batters later, Peyton Coria got on the scoresheet with a bloop double that gave her her first RBI of the morning. Albayati followed this with another clutch single for her third run driven and a stolen base, and on the next batter, a throwing error allowed both runners to stroll home and increased the team's advantage to twelve.

The Stripes put one last crooked number on the board in the seventh, scoring three more times to bring the score up to its final total of 16-1. Whitmore doubled with a pair of runners on to notch her second and third RBIs of the game, and Beth Greenwood ripped a line drive right up the middle two batters later to score Whitmore and put a cherry on top of an excellent team performance.

Notable Stats

• The Stripes' dominant showing in the box was a total team effort. Ten of the 12 players on the team to record at least one plate appearance got a hit, and the two that didn't still pitched in with either a walk or an RBI.
• The 3-6 hitters of Albayati, Gortarez, Whitmore, and Pichardo combined to go 11-17 five extra-base hits and nine RBIs. Beyond them, Studer picked up three hits of her own, and Coria notched two despite entering late as a substitute.
• On the mound, the quintet of Elise Berger, Paloma Benach, Luciana Moreno, Cameron Ely, and Maggie Fox combined to give up just four hits and one unearned run in their seven innings of work.
• On the other side of things, the standout performer for the Stars was Akira Kopec, who tossed 1.2 innings of one-hit ball against the red-hot Stripes lineup while striking out three.

On Deck

The second game of the Stars vs. Stripes series will take place tomorrow at 10 A.M. MT at Riverview Baseball Complex in Mesa, Arizona. You can follow along with the action @USABaseballWNT on Twitter or at the GameChanger link here.