Cascade drop second straight game with 7-2 loss to Texas
Published 11:00 am Saturday, July 18, 2026
For the second straight night and with a bid in the postseason on the line, the Portland Cascade came up short, losing to the Texas Volts 7-2 on Friday night, July 17, at Hillsboro Ballpark.
The Cascade scored two first-inning runs off of Texas starting pitcher Ally Carda, but did little after that as Carda and reliever Aliyah Binford combined to allow four total hits over the game’s seven innings.
“Allie, in the first inning, was coming hard at us and we took advantage,” Portland head coach Tairia Flowers said. “Then she started mixing speeds and we didn’t make those adjustments. Then they brought in Binford who was just constantly throwing that off-speed, and it kind of threw us off a little bit.”
The Volts scored a run in both the second and third innings to tie the game 2-2, then went on to score a single run in the fourth and fifth before putting up a three-spot in the ninth to put an exclamation mark on the victory.
“They did a great job of consistently putting runs on the board,” Flowers said. “We’ve got to figure out how to stop that tomorrow and make adjustments for ourselves up at the plate.”
Texas catcher Dejah Mulipola extended her hitting streak to five games and finished 2-for-4 with two home runs and two RBI. Flowers is more than familiar with Mulipola, having coached her in the past, but spoke to her prowess at the plate afterwards.
“She’s a great hitter,” Flowers said. “I was fortunate to coach her on the Olympic team and she’s got a ton of power and good eye. She took advantage of our misses.”
The Volts also got two hits from Tiare Jennings, and three hits from Danieca Coffey who finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and run-scored.
Portland was led by Megan Grant and Sierra Sacco-Ferrie who batted in both Cascade runs, while notching two of their team’s four total hits.
Kelly Maxwell started in the circle for Portland, and allowed two earned runs in 2.2 innings.
Kenzie Brown and Carley Hoover pitched in relief of Maxwell and combined to allow five runs on seven hits over the final 4.1 innings.
The Cascade have just one game remaining and are tied in the loss column with Oklahoma City — who has three games left — for the league’s final playoff spot. Flowers said the enormity of Saturday’s finale with Texas is not lost on her team, but she knows they’ll be ready to play come game-time.
“Everybody is very aware,” Flowers said, “so I’m sure emotions are going to be very high tomorrow.”