The wait is over -- and organizers say that the time is right -- for professional softball to make its biggest push yet into a surging women's sports market with the launch of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League on Saturday.
"There's a lot of energy -- a lot of passion," said AUSL commissioner Kim Ng, a veteran MLB executive and former college softball player. "I think this is a long time coming for the softball community."
How to watch AUSL on ESPN Networks
AUSL breaks into the big leagues with an unprecedented partnership with Major League Baseball -- which recently announced an equity stake in the new league -- and ESPN, which will air 40 games this summer. Recent viewership data has boosted AUSL's confidence in the sustainability of the league: Ratings for the Women's College World Series have surpassed 1 million viewers in five straight tournaments. Last year's finals notched 2 million viewers -- their largest audience on record.
"Softball is an absolute juggernaut on the TV front," Athletes Unlimited CEO and co-founder Jon Patricof said. "There is a huge fan base out there and a lot of them still aren't aware that there's pro softball that they can watch and tune into. With the help of ESPN, with the help of MLB, we're confident that when they find out about it, they're going to love it."
AUSL advisor Natasha Watley, who is on the league's board alongside softball greats Jennie Finch, Cat Osterman and Jessica Mendoza, compared the launch of the AUSL with winning a gold medal with Team USA in 2004. Watley said she plans to bring her 3-year-old daughter to the opening slate of games this week.
"What's going to be neat is years down the road," Watley told ESPN, as tears welled in her eyes. "I'm hoping that she can look back and say, 'I was there for opening weekend, and I was 3 years old, and now look at it.'
"That's her norm, people filling up the stadium for women's sports."
Let's get into what fans have to look forward to this season.
What is Athletes Unlimited and how will this season work?
Athletes Unlimited, the umbrella group for several women's sports leagues, created the Pro Softball Championship in 2020 before adding AUX, a two-week softball season. This year, the group is launching AUSL, a women's softball league that will initially feature four 15-player teams: the Bandits, Blaze, Talons and Volts. For the 2025 season, AUSL will barnstorm 10 cities before the league becomes city-based next year. Each team will play a 24-game season. At the conclusion of the regular season, the top two teams will play each other in the best-of-three AUSL Championship in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from July 26-28.
The move to a traditional team format -- from a unique individual-focused model in Athletes' Unlimited other softball ventures -- is the biggest change in the inaugural season of the AUSL, a change that players lobbied for.
"The viewership and fan base now will have something to get behind other than just one specific player," AUSL advisor and softball legend Finch said. "It's the storylines of the season, of the week of matchups, all of those things. ... And you'll have a jersey and a mascot to get behind as well."
Which cities will host games?
Games will be held in Rosemont, Illinois, Wichita, Kansas, Sulphur, Louisiana, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Norman, Oklahoma, Omaha, Nebraska, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Round Rock, Texas, and Tuscaloosa. The league views this touring model as a "tryout" for cities to potentially land home teams next season.
"We get to see which cities really show up and maybe next year they can be home cities for our league," Volts shortstop Sis Bates said. "So I'm excited to see all the fans out there."
Who are the teams?
Bandits
General manager: Jenny Dalton-Hill, who still holds the NCAA Division I record for career RBIs with 328, nearly 30 years after her college career at the blue-blood Arizona Wildcats.
Head coach: Stacey Nuveman-Deniz, who won two Olympic gold medals with Team USA and brings an extensive coaching career to the Bandits, as the current head coach of the San Diego State Aztecs softball team.
Players to know:
Odicci Alexander, RHP -- Alexander led James Madison to their first Women's College World Series appearance in 2021, where it made an historic run to the semis as an unseeded team. Alexander won the AU Softball title in 2023 after leading the league with 1,994 leaderboard points. She made one of the most incredible WCWS plays in recent memory.
Lexi Kilfoyl, RHP -- Kilfoyl was the first pick selected in the AUSL inaugural draft in January. The Oklahoma State righty helped lead the Cowgirls to the WCWS for the fifth straight year in 2024, posting a 5-0 record with a 0.75 ERA during regional and super regional play. She was the unanimous Big 12 Pitcher of the Year in her final collegiate season.
Bubba Nickles-Camarena, INF -- Aside from having the best name in the AUSL, Nickles-Camarena won a silver medal with Team USA at Tokyo and helped lead UCLA softball to a national championship in 2019. Nickles-Camarena was a 2024 AUX champion and led the league with 14 RBIs.
Blaze
General manager: Dana Sorensen led Stanford to the WCWS in 2001 and 2004 and graduated holding almost every single-season pitching mark in Stanford history at the time. She's one of only two pitchers in Stanford history with over 1,000 Ks and one of three with 100 or more wins. Do we need to mention she is in the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame?
Head coach: Alisa Goler was a three-time All-American at Georgia, graduating with numerous UGA single-season records, including batting average (.455), home runs (24) and RBIs (83). She was named an assistant coach for USA Softball's Elite and U-18 teams in 2024. She serves as the head coach at Western Illinois.
Players to know:
Keilani Ricketts, LHP -- The veteran pitcher won the 2013 national championship with Oklahoma and was named WCWS MVP. Ricketts holds school records for wins, appearances, starts, complete games and inning pitched. After playing with the National Pro Fastpitch league and in Japan, she made her Athletes Unlimited debut last year in the AUX season, finishing with a 2.75 ERA over 20 innings and 11 strikeouts.
Emma Lemley, RHP -- Lemley had a great senior year with Virginia Tech, leading Division I in no-hitters with four in her 2025 season, including back-to-back perfect games. She was the first "Golden Ticket" recipient for the AUSL, which notified the best players in college of their upcoming selection in the AUSL inaugural draft.
Aliyah Andrews, OF -- If you are an avid fan of "SportsCenter's" top 10 plays, you might recognize "Air Aliyah" for her ridiculous diving catches and spectacular defensive ability. She was a three-time SEC All-Defensive team selection during her collegiate career at LSU. And she's a speedster -- she holds the LSU single-season record with 47 stolen bases.
Talons
General manager: Lisa Fernandez, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest softball players of all time. Fernandez dominated as a pitcher and a hitter. She won three consecutive Olympic gold medals with Team USA softball from 1996 to 2004, most notably as the only pitcher to appear in all three finals. She also won two national championships with UCLA and is in her 27th year with the Bruins softball coaching staff.
Head coach: Howard Dobson is the former hitting coach at LSU who helped lead the Tigers to four WCWS appearances and saw the program's offensive numbers surge to new heights across his 13 seasons in Baton Rouge, breaking 15 individual single-season records, 10 individual career records and 16 offensive season records.
Players to know:
Bri Ellis, INF -- The "Barry Bonds of softball," Ellis brings plenty of power to the plate as Arkansas' single-season record holder for HRs and RBIs -- her 26 HRs tied the SEC record -- among many other impressive records as a Razorback. She said she's definitely not expecting to be walked much in this league.
"This is going to be much harder because there is no game off," Ellis told ESPN. "You've got to be locked in and at your best. And also you got to remember that these pitchers don't really miss, and they don't really make mistakes. [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 a perfect game for Alabama against UCLA in the 2021 Women's College World Series, the fifth perfect game in WCWS history. She also led Division I in strikeouts in 2023. Fouts compiled a 100-32 record for the Crimson Tide.
Sharlize Palacios, INF -- One of the top players in collegiate softball and the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament MVP, Palacios says the level of competition will force her to up her game as a hitter.
"It's those little moments in between your swings that you have to think very quickly and make those small adjustments," Palacios said. "I'm really excited to have now a coaching staff that is going to be able to help me with that and coach me through that, and I'm going to be able to just continue to up my levels."
Volts
General manager: Cat Osterman has a long history with Athletes Unlimited softball, having won the Pro Softball Championship Season title in 2020. The only three-time winner of the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award (2003, 2004 and 2006) said this about the offensive firepower on this Volts squad team.
"If we're not leading the league in home runs, we have some problems," she said. "And if it's not home runs, we better be leading in doubles. We should be getting a lot of extra base hits with this power."
Head coach: Kelly Kretschman won a gold medal with Team USA in 2004 and a silver in 2008. Beyond her Olympic success, she holds numerous records in professional softball, including being the all-time career leader in RBIs, hits, doubles and walks in the National Pro Fastpitch league.
Players to know:
Sis Bates, SS -- The Washington Huskies all-time hits leader, Bates joins the Volts after a storied collegiate career and is looking forward to playing on a lot of dirt fields this season.
"I am a hitter that slaps," Bates said. "I say I'm not a slapper per se, so I'm curious to see if maybe some of my slap game comes back playing on dirt with a little bit higher bounces. I'm really looking forward to honing into being a triple threat again and bringing that part back into my game."
Rachel Garcia, RHP -- A first-round pick in the inaugural AUSL draft and the anchor of the Volts pitching staff, Garcia led UCLA to a national championship in 2019 and was named the WCWS Most Outstanding Player that year.
"When I drafted her first," Osterman told ESPN, "I texted her and said, 'let's go.' And she was like, 'I'm ready.' She's come in and she's looked great. I've watched a couple of the bullpens and live, and you can just tell that there's no rust."
Michaela Edenfield, C -- What's the best way to describe the Volts infield? Stacked. Oh, and Edenfield's consistently been one of Florida State's most powerful hitters, having previously led the team in HRs and RBIs.
What do players think?
The overwhelming sentiment is excitement about the new league, the partnership with MLB (which will include visibility during the All-Star Game) and the long-term prospects for AUSL. Throw in a dose of nerves, particularly for the players making the transition from college ball to the pros.
"I'm 100 percent going to be shaking in my boots," Edenfield said in an interview at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont. "You're with the best of the best out here. ... [Volts GM] Cat Osterman threw BP to me the other day; I can't wrap my mind around it." (Osterman confirmed to ESPN she did throw BP "the other night" and disclosed the respect is mutual: "Michaela is probably our one draft pick that I honestly didn't think she was still going to be there with my pick in the second round ... she was the only big catcher in the group.")
The new league also prides itself on benefits for players that supersede previous pro leagues, with higher salaries -- players can earn up to $75,000 for the season -- and individual hotel rooms while touring, another departure from prior leagues.
"Our athletes, they're all probably jumping for joy," Osterman said. "They don't have to have roommates, and they get their own room this year. That's big.
"Athletes Unlimited has always remembered that [players are] the product, and [they're] trying to take care of the product first."
"We've been at the forefront with respect to benefits," Patricof told ESPN. "Everyone wants the opportunity for these athletes to be year-round, fully dedicated softball players."
What strikes AUSL advisor Finch about the new league is a level of professionalism she says is a dream come true.
"We've been a part of a lot of things and a lot of professional leagues that just have not been professional," Finch said. "Getting Kim Ng on as the commissioner was a game changer and then just to see it come to fruition and, it's all hands on deck. We're now one engine moving forward."
