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Athletes Limitless Softball League 2025 preview: Groups, gamers to know and extra

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Athletes Unlimited Softball League 2025 preview: Teams, players to know and more

The wait is over — and organizers say that the time is correct — for skilled softball to make its largest push but right into a surging ladies’s sports activities market with the launch of the Athletes Limitless Softball League on Saturday.

“There’s lots of vitality — lots of ardour,” stated AUSL commissioner Kim Ng, a veteran MLB government and former school softball participant. “I believe this can be a very long time coming for the softball neighborhood.”

Easy methods to watch AUSL on ESPN Networks

AUSL breaks into the massive leagues with an unprecedented partnership with Main League Baseball — which just lately introduced an fairness stake within the new league — and ESPN, which is able to air 40 video games this summer time. Current viewership knowledge has boosted AUSL’s confidence within the sustainability of the league: Scores for the Ladies’s School World Sequence have surpassed 1 million viewers in 5 straight tournaments. Final yr’s finals notched 2 million viewers — their largest viewers on file.

“Softball is an absolute juggernaut on the TV entrance,” Athletes Limitless CEO and co-founder Jon Patricof stated. “There’s a large fan base on the market and lots of them nonetheless aren’t conscious that there is professional softball that they will watch and tune into. With the assistance of ESPN, with the assistance of MLB, we’re assured that once they discover out about it, they will find it irresistible.”

AUSL advisor Natasha Watley, who’s on the league’s board alongside softball greats Jennie Finch, Cat Osterman and Jessica Mendoza, in contrast the launch of the AUSL with profitable a gold medal with Staff USA in 2004. Watley stated she plans to carry her 3-year-old daughter to the opening slate of video games this week.

“What is going on to be neat is years down the highway,” Watley instructed ESPN, as tears welled in her eyes. “I am hoping that she will look again and say, ‘I used to be there for opening weekend, and I used to be 3 years outdated, and now have a look at it.’

“That is her norm, individuals filling up the stadium for girls’s sports activities.”

Let’s get into what followers should look ahead to this season.

What’s Athletes Limitless and the way will this season work?

Athletes Limitless, the umbrella group for a number of ladies’s sports activities leagues, created the Professional Softball Championship in 2020 earlier than including AUX, a two-week softball season. This yr, the group is launching AUSL, a ladies’s softball league that may initially characteristic 4 15-player groups: the Bandits, Blaze, Talons and Volts. For the 2025 season, AUSL will barnstorm 10 cities earlier than the league turns into city-based subsequent yr. Every crew will play a 24-game season. On the conclusion of the common season, the highest two groups will play one another within the best-of-three AUSL Championship in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from July 26-28.

The transfer to a standard crew format — from a singular individual-focused mannequin in Athletes’ Limitless different softball ventures — is the largest change within the inaugural season of the AUSL, a change that gamers lobbied for.

“The viewership and fan base now could have one thing to get behind aside from only one particular participant,” AUSL advisor and softball legend Finch stated. “It is the storylines of the season, of the week of matchups, all of these issues. … And you will have a jersey and a mascot to get behind as nicely.”

Which cities will host video games?

Video games can be held in Rosemont, Illinois, Wichita, Kansas, Sulphur, Louisiana, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Norman, Oklahoma, Omaha, Nebraska, Seattle, Salt Lake Metropolis, Spherical Rock, Texas, and Tuscaloosa. The league views this touring mannequin as a “tryout” for cities to probably land house groups subsequent season.

“We get to see which cities actually present up and possibly subsequent yr they are often house cities for our league,” Volts shortstop Sis Bates stated. “So I am excited to see all of the followers on the market.”

Who’re the groups?

Bandits

Basic supervisor: Jenny Dalton-Hill, who nonetheless holds the NCAA Division I file for profession RBIs with 328, almost 30 years after her school profession on the blue-blood Arizona Wildcats.

Head coach: Stacey Nuveman-Deniz, who received two Olympic gold medals with Staff USA and brings an in depth teaching profession to the Bandits, as the present head coach of the San Diego State Aztecs softball crew.

Gamers to know:

Odicci Alexander, RHP — Alexander led James Madison to their first Ladies’s School World Sequence look in 2021, the place it made an historic run to the semis as an unseeded crew. Alexander received the AU Softball title in 2023 after main the league with 1,994 leaderboard factors. She made one of the vital unimaginable WCWS performs in current reminiscence.

Lexi Kilfoyl, RHP — Kilfoyl was the primary decide chosen within the AUSL inaugural draft in January. The Oklahoma State righty helped lead the Cowgirls to the WCWS for the fifth straight yr in 2024, posting a 5-0 file with a 0.75 ERA throughout regional and tremendous regional play. She was the unanimous Huge 12 Pitcher of the Yr in her closing collegiate season.

Bubba Nickles-Camarena, INF — Apart from having one of the best identify within the AUSL, Nickles-Camarena received a silver medal with Staff USA at Tokyo and helped lead UCLA softball to a nationwide championship in 2019. Nickles-Camarena was a 2024 AUX champion and led the league with 14 RBIs.

Blaze

Basic supervisor: Dana Sorensen led Stanford to the WCWS in 2001 and 2004 and graduated holding virtually each single-season pitching mark in Stanford historical past on the time. She’s one in all solely two pitchers in Stanford historical past with over 1,000 Ks and one in all three with 100 or extra wins. Do we have to point out she is within the Stanford Athletics Corridor of Fame?

Head coach: Alisa Goler was a three-time All-American at Georgia, graduating with quite a few UGA single-season information, together with batting common (.455), house runs (24) and RBIs (83). She was named an assistant coach for USA Softball’s Elite and U-18 groups in 2024. She serves as the pinnacle coach at Western Illinois.

Gamers to know:

Keilani Ricketts, LHP — The veteran pitcher received the 2013 nationwide championship with Oklahoma and was named WCWS MVP. Ricketts holds college information for wins, appearances, begins, full video games and inning pitched. After enjoying with the Nationwide Professional Fastpitch league and in Japan, she made her Athletes Limitless debut final yr within the AUX season, ending with a 2.75 ERA over 20⅓ innings and 11 strikeouts.

Emma Lemley, RHP — Lemley had an important senior yr with Virginia Tech, main Division I in no-hitters with 4 in her 2025 season, together with back-to-back good video games. She was the primary “Golden Ticket” recipient for the AUSL, which notified one of the best gamers in school of their upcoming choice within the AUSL inaugural draft.

Aliyah Andrews, OF — If you’re an avid fan of “SportsCenter’s” prime 10 performs, you may acknowledge “Air Aliyah” for her ridiculous diving catches and spectacular defensive means. She was a three-time SEC All-Defensive crew choice throughout her collegiate profession at LSU. And he or she’s a speedster — she holds the LSU single-season file with 47 stolen bases.

Talons

Basic supervisor: Lisa Fernandez, who’s extensively thought to be one of many best softball gamers of all time. Fernandez dominated as a pitcher and a hitter. She received three consecutive Olympic gold medals with Staff USA softball from 1996 to 2004, most notably as the one pitcher to look in all three finals. She additionally received two nationwide championships with UCLA and is in her twenty seventh yr with the Bruins softball teaching workers.

Head coach: Howard Dobson is the previous hitting coach at LSU who helped lead the Tigers to 4 WCWS appearances and noticed this system’s offensive numbers surge to new heights throughout his 13 seasons in Baton Rouge, breaking 15 particular person single-season information, 10 particular person profession information and 16 offensive season information.

Gamers to know:

Bri Ellis, INF — The “Barry Bonds of softball,” Ellis brings loads of energy to the plate as Arkansas’ single-season file holder for HRs and RBIs — her 26 HRs tied the SEC file — amongst many different spectacular information as a Razorback. She stated she’s positively not anticipating to be walked a lot on this league.

“That is going to be a lot tougher as a result of there isn’t a recreation off,” Ellis instructed ESPN. “You have to be locked in and at your greatest. And in addition you bought to do not forget that these pitchers do not actually miss, and so they do not actually make errors. [But] I refuse to get out and I refuse to let the pitcher beat me.”

Montana Fouts, RHP — A four-time All-American, Fouts pitched an ideal recreation for Alabama towards UCLA within the 2021 Ladies’s School World Sequence, the fifth good recreation in WCWS historical past. She additionally led Division I in strikeouts in 2023. Fouts compiled a 100-32 file for the Crimson Tide.

Sharlize Palacios, INF — One of many prime gamers in collegiate softball and the 2024 Pac-12 Event MVP, Palacios says the extent of competitors will pressure her to up her recreation as a hitter.

“It is these little moments in between your swings that you must suppose in a short time and make these small changes,” Palacios stated. “I am actually excited to have now a training workers that’s going to have the ability to assist me with that and coach me by that, and I am going to have the ability to simply proceed to up my ranges.”

Volts

Basic supervisor: Cat Osterman has an extended historical past with Athletes Limitless softball, having received the Professional Softball Championship Season title in 2020. The one three-time winner of the USA Softball Collegiate Participant of the Yr Award (2003, 2004 and 2006) stated this concerning the offensive firepower on this Volts squad crew.

“If we’re not main the league in house runs, we now have some issues,” she stated. “And if it is not house runs, we higher be main in doubles. We needs to be getting lots of further base hits with this energy.”

Head coach: Kelly Kretschman received a gold medal with Staff USA in 2004 and a silver in 2008. Past her Olympic success, she holds quite a few information in skilled softball, together with being the all-time profession chief in RBIs, hits, doubles and walks within the Nationwide Professional Fastpitch league.

Gamers to know:

Sis Bates, SS — The Washington Huskies all-time hits chief, Bates joins the Volts after a storied collegiate profession and is trying ahead to enjoying on lots of filth fields this season.

“I’m a hitter that slaps,” Bates stated. “I say I am not a slapper per se, so I am curious to see if possibly a few of my slap recreation comes again enjoying on filth with a bit of bit greater bounces. I am actually trying ahead to honing into being a triple menace once more and bringing that half again into my recreation.”

Rachel Garcia, RHP — A primary-round decide within the inaugural AUSL draft and the anchor of the Volts pitching workers, Garcia led UCLA to a nationwide championship in 2019 and was named the WCWS Most Excellent Participant that yr.

“After I drafted her first,” Osterman instructed ESPN, “I texted her and stated, ‘let’s go.’ And he or she was like, ‘I am prepared.’ She’s are available and he or she’s seemed nice. I’ve watched a few the bullpens and stay, and you’ll simply inform that there is no rust.”

Michaela Edenfield, C — What’s one of the simplest ways to explain the Volts infield? Stacked. Oh, and Edenfield’s persistently been one in all Florida State’s strongest hitters, having beforehand led the crew in HRs and RBIs.

What do gamers suppose?

The overwhelming sentiment is pleasure concerning the new league, the partnership with MLB (which is able to embrace visibility in the course of the All-Star Recreation) and the long-term prospects for AUSL. Throw in a dose of nerves, notably for the gamers making the transition from school ball to the professionals.

“I am one hundred pc going to be shaking in my boots,” Edenfield stated in an interview at Parkway Financial institution Sports activities Advanced in Rosemont. “You are with one of the best of one of the best out right here. … [Volts GM] Cat Osterman threw BP to me the opposite day; I can not wrap my thoughts round it.” (Osterman confirmed to ESPN she did throw BP “the opposite evening” and disclosed the respect is mutual: “Michaela might be our one draft decide that I actually did not suppose she was nonetheless going to be there with my decide within the second spherical … she was the one huge catcher within the group.”)

The brand new league additionally prides itself on advantages for gamers that supersede earlier professional leagues, with greater salaries — gamers can earn as much as $75,000 for the season — and particular person lodge rooms whereas touring, one other departure from prior leagues.

“Our athletes, they’re all most likely leaping for pleasure,” Osterman stated. “They do not should have roommates, and so they get their very own room this yr. That is huge.

“Athletes Limitless has at all times remembered that [players are] the product, and [they’re] attempting to care for the product first.”

“We have been on the forefront with respect to advantages,” Patricof instructed ESPN. “Everybody needs the chance for these athletes to be year-round, totally devoted softball gamers.”

What strikes AUSL advisor Finch concerning the new league is a degree of professionalism she says is a dream come true.

“We have been part of lots of issues and lots of skilled leagues that simply haven’t been skilled,” Finch stated. “Getting Kim Ng on because the commissioner was a recreation changer after which simply to see it come to fruition and, it is all arms on deck. We’re now one engine transferring ahead.”

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