Softball

11/20/2023 |  Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball announces multi-year deal to bring the league to Kansas (Gist Sports, The)

The GIST: Last Friday, Athletes Unlimited (AU) Pro Softball announced a multi-year agreement with Wichita State University to bring pro softball to Kansas, creating the first pro women’s sports league to play a full season in Wichita. Clicking our ruby slippers.

The details: Starting next summer, Wichita State’s Wilkins Stadium will host AU Pro Softball’s AUX competition, an event showcasing the world’s premier softball players as they play 18 games across two weeks to crown an individual champion. Ticket deposits are already available for the must-watch June tournament starring several AU softball standouts.

• Wichita State alum Sydney McKinney — the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 AU Pro Softball College Draft — will join Olympians and former AUX Softball champions Rachel Garcia and Danielle O’Toole. See them in a crown.

The company: Since its 2020 launch, AU has seen overnight success in its women’s pro softball, volleyball, basketball, and lacrosse leagues thanks to its player-centric, mission-driven model. An advisory board featuring former softball athletes Jessica Mendoza and Cat Osterman really drives this point home, and AU was also named one of 2023’s most innovative companies.

The trend: The organization thrives by targeting women’s sports with surging youth participationand widespread college fandom that lack strong pro pipelines in the U.S. AU’s intentionality differentiates it from women’s pro leagues of years past as it focuses on big-name investors and putting athletes first. Using its starpower to shine.

 

10/13/2023 |  2024 USA Softball Gold National Championships Headed to Oklahoma City (SportsTravel) The 2024 USA Softball Gold National Championships will be in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex from July 14-21.
The event will be in Oklahoma City for the third consecutive year in 2024. The competition will have teams from around the country in the 16-Under and 18-Under divisions play for a national championship.
The 2024 version will be the 11th time USA Softball crowns a champion in the 16-Under division and the 31st time in the 18-Under division. The 2024 Gold National Championships will include 48 berths for each division with each team earning a berth through a network of regional qualifying tournaments and allocated berths.

8/11/2023 |  Good Sport: Athletes Unlimited pro softball competes in Rosemont (AXIOS Sports) In our continuing series of alternative options for watching summer sports, we head to Rosemont to catch some of the nation's best softball players.
Driving the news: The Athletes Unlimited women's softball league is redefining how the game is played, shuffling team rosters and rewarding individual champions at season's end.

7/13/2023 |  World Baseball Softball Confederation Brings Event to Mexico (SportsTravel) The World Baseball Softball Confederation has announced Guadalajara, Mexico, as host for the inaugural WBSC Coed Slow Pitch Softball World Cup from December 5–10, 2023.
The WBSC also unveiled the logo for the new competition, which features curves in the logo to symbolize the initials of the slow pitch discipline.

6/26/2023 |  College World Series Shows Off for Oklahoma City, USA Softball (SportsTravel) One of the most dominant teams in collegiate sports history, Oklahoma University’s softball team is nearly three weeks removed from beating Florida State in the Women’s College World Series to be the first repeat champions since UCLA in 1990, finishing a season in which it won the final 53 games of the season to finish 61-1 in front of television audiences that set college softball records.