Washington softball legends to face off in Seattle for Athletes Unlimited Softball League
The two teams have struggled during the first season of the AUSL, with the Volts sitting in third place with a 5-10 record on the season, while the Blaze are sitting in last at 3-12. However, that shouldn't take any luster away from the matchup between the two former Huskies, who have six All-American selections between them.
"With more than a dozen appearances in the College World Series and a national championship, the University of Washington boasts one of the most storied histories in all of college softball," former Miami Marlins general manager and AUSL senior advisor Kim Ng said in a press release when the series was announced.
"We are looking forward to the AUSL adding to the list of historic moments for the sport that have taken place at Husky Softball Stadium, and for the Seattle fans to provide a great homecoming for Baylee and Sis."
Bates, a three-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, has struggled at the plate but starred in the field thus far this year. She holds just a .211 batting average with 4 hits in 19 at-bats, 2 runs batted in, a walk, and a .461 OPS, while boasting a .950 fielding percentage on the infield.
Klingler, who was a top-three finalist for USA Softball's Collegiate Player of the Year in 2022, has continued to mash at the plate, just like her Husky career. Her .444 batting average and 1.168 OPS are both among the top five in the league, while she's added 16 hits, 2 home runs, 3 doubles, and 11 RBIs.
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Chicago Tribune
4 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
AUSL is the newest swing at professional softball — and it continues to grow after 3 sellouts in Rosemont
Bandits pitcher Devyn Netz fouled out to left field to end the sixth inning in a July 7 game against the Volts in Rosemont. Fans at the sold-out Parkway Bank Sports Complex applauded Volts pitcher Rachel Garcia as she walked off the field, carrying a no-hitter into the seventh. While the Bandits erased Garcia's no-hit bid in the final inning, cutting their 5-0 deficit to 5-3, the flurry ended with Garcia's ninth strikeout. A Volts flag near home plate stretched across a section of fans as the team secured its fifth win of the season. It was the first of back-to-back-to-back sellouts at the 2,000-seat ballpark for the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), the newest swing at professional softball. 'Can you imagine (a player like) Jennie Finch having this type of platform back in her day and how large the game of softball would be right now?' AUSL Commissioner Kim Ng said. 'That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to grow the sport and give it the access it deserves, (which is) a continuation of the NCAA platform.' The season opened June 7 with the league's four teams — the Bandits, Volts, Talons and Blaze — playing a pair of three-game series in Rosemont and Wichita, Kan. None of the red seats was left unoccupied during the six days the league has played in Rosemont, where it will return Tuesday and Wednesday. Ng, 56, runs the league using tips learned from her time in Chicago. She earned a public policy degree from the University of Chicago while also playing softball for the Maroons as a middle infielder. Could a younger Ng keep up with AUSL competition today? 'Not even close,' she said with a laugh. 'Comparing me to them does not give (AUSL players) the justice they deserve. These women are incredible athletes and you gain more of an appreciation for who they are.' She guides the AUSL with many historic moments under her belt. After Ng graduated from U. of C., the White Sox hired her as an intern, later promoting her to assistant director of baseball operations. In 1998 she became the assistant general manager of the New York Yankees — the youngest assistant GM in MLB history and the second woman to have that title — and the Derek Jeter-led Yankees won three straight World Series from 1998-2000. Ng later joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in the same role, then was senior vice president of MLB from 2011-20. She chased her goal of becoming a big-league GM, but her run was a bumpy one. Interviews with the Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and New York Mets all ended in rejection. 'There's a humbleness when you get asked to interview so early in your career,' said Ng, who first got a GM interview in LA. 'I was incredibly privileged to be requested, (but) as the interviews mounted up, it started to get frustrating.' One thing remains true in any job market: It helps to know people. In 2020, Ng got a call about the GM vacancy with the Miami Marlins. The interview was with Marlins CEO and part owner Jeter, who was 'the same person' as he was in his Yankees playing days. Ng was hired as the first female GM in any of the big four North American leagues — MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL — and under her watch, the Marlins made the postseason for just the fourth time in franchise history with a 84-78 record in 2023. She and the team parted ways after that season. Ng's journey has been a motivation for current AUSL players. Her smiling portrait was alongside those of Finch, rugby star Ilona Maher and other female sports trailblazers on a 'Women who inspire' sign at the Rosemont ballpark. 'Seeing what (Ng) has done to uplift and support the AUSL has been incredible,' Blaze infielder Aubrey Leach said. 'She continues to raise the bar for what professional softball can be.' Ng's graduate thesis at U. of C. was on Title IX, the 1972 federal law that prohibited sex discrimination in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding. The law, among other effects, opened the door for women to participate in college athletics. She always wanted to further women's sports, and now she has found her opportunity. 'It's a cultural movement where people acknowledge and recognize how incredible the women athletes are and how incredible these sports are,' Ng said. 'That was the one of two drivers for me coming back to softball. 'No. 1 was my love of the game. I just feel this incredible debt and gratitude to the game, having grown up and played it. No. 2 (was) seeing where women's sports was and knowing that this was a train that was leaving the station and I did not want to (miss it). As we elevate and escalate and move this sport forward, I wanted to be one of the contributors to that effort.' MLB partnered with the AUSL with a goal of helping the softball league stay established. The pairing includes marketing efforts, joint sales and AUSL broadcasting on and MLB Network. 'Major League Baseball's investment in the AUSL represents an opportunity to support softball's long-term growth and expand our engagement with these outstanding athletes and their fans,' MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. There is no timestamp for the future, but Ng has a clear vision for the softball league. 'Long term, (I'd) love for us to be the MLB of softball,' she said. 'That is ultimately the (place) that we are in, this huge process creating more softball fans.' The game is growing, and Ng will be the first to tell you not to miss it. 'If you're a baseball fan and you turn on a softball game, I think you will be amazed by the action and the pace at which it happens,' she said. 'If you think you can hit a fastball in softball, you're wrong.'
New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
How Phillies first-rounder Gage Wood became an Arkansas baseball legend
A trip to the College World Series was on the line, and Arkansas pitcher Gage Wood did not have his best stuff. Three straight hits loaded the bases in the third against Tennessee in the Super Regional on June 8. A runner scored. Wood wasn't laboring, pitching coach Matt Hobbs said, but batters were getting to him. So he pulled Wood in the fourth, and the bullpen chipped in during an 11-4 win that sent the Razorbacks to the College World Series. Advertisement Nobody was more excited at the end of the game than Wood, Hobbs said, though he easily could have been upset. It was Wood's draft year. He'd thrown around 40 pitches. The next day, when Hobbs borderline apologized to Wood for removing him from the game, Wood told him: 'Who cares? We're going to Omaha.' By any means, any method, Wood wanted to get his home state Razorbacks to Omaha. It was there that Wood became an Arkansas folk hero, throwing just the third no-hitter in College World Series history against Murray State on June 16. There was no removing Wood that day; Hobbs tried after eight innings and 106 pitches, and Wood refused. The Batesville, Ark., native finished the game and his college career on his terms, in 119 pitches and with 19 strikeouts. He will be remembered for delivering one of the College World Series' most dominant performances ever, elevating his state in the process. 'An Arkansas kid standing on the mound in Omaha in a must-win game for the University of Arkansas — I mean, it doesn't get much bigger than that, right?' director of pitching development Zach Barr said. 'We don't win the game, we're going home. The season's over. For him to go out there and do what he did in an environment like that on that day was pretty unbelievable.' A new chapter began Sunday, when Wood was drafted 26th by the Phillies. In Wood, Philadelphia landed a righty with an elite fastball with life and movement that produced the top whiff rate in Division I baseball. His curveball has strong vertical break and ranges from 83 to 86 mph. The club envisions developing Wood as a starter, also liking his slider and split-changeup. But, before first-round projections, the no-hitter and a slot value of more than $3.4 million, Wood was a wide-eyed freshman arriving at the school he'd rooted for since he was a child. Advertisement He left Batesville High School, where enrollment is less than 1,000 students, as one of the state's top prep baseball players. He arrived at Arkansas, which has an undergraduate student population of nearly 29,000, and joined a team with some of the nation's top college players competing against other top talents. 'I thought he was a cartoon character, just very wide-eyed and bushy-tailed,' Barr said of first meeting Wood in 2023. Why? 'There's always a little bit of a 'Holy s —' moment for the young guys that come in,' Barr said. 'Gage is probably one of, if not the best, pitchers from our state. He's got some accolades behind him, but not as highly touted as some of the other guys we had. … You kind of have that moment of realization, 'Oh, it's not my pond anymore. Now it's our pond, and I've got to try to be a big fish in it.'' Wood closed some games in the middle of the season and threw some big innings in 2023. But, Hobbs said, he fizzled out like freshmen tend to do when frequently put in high-leverage situations. He finished the year with 23 appearances, recording five saves en route to a 4.80 ERA. He looked different when he got to campus as a sophomore, coaches said. He was stronger. He'd shed baby fat. On the mound, his delivery was stronger, he used the strike zone more and the breaking ball was sharper. 'We always knew he was serious,' coach Dave Van Horn said, 'but we knew how serious he was now.' What transformed his game: paying attention to the little things, like his diet, sleep and recovery. Hobbs recalled talking about food with Wood, who brought up that he'd run out of his meal prep — a foreign concept to some college athletes, who often eat at state-of-the-art cafeterias. 'I was like, 'Wait a second: you're preparing meals for the week?'' Hobbs said. 'It's something you preach to your players, but it's rare that it actually happens, right?' Advertisement Wood primarily pitched in middle relief in 2024, logging a 4.46 ERA in 40 1/3 innings. What made Wood strong in relief, Van Horn said, was throwing a lot of strikes, repeating pitches well and good velocity. Combining that with a three-to-four-pitch repertoire that he could command made him a starter as a junior in 2025, Van Horn said. Wood, however, made just two starts before tweaking his shoulder in mid-February. There were a few weeks, Van Horn said, where they didn't know if he'd return. 'You just never know how that's going to go,' he said. The MRI and other imaging came back fine. But it was a risk to come back, Hobbs said, especially in Wood's draft year. Still: 'I don't know that ever really entered his mind,' Hobbs said. The shoulder impingement — an injury that occurs when the shoulder blade pinches the rotator cuff — likely contributed to Wood going late in the first round, though Phillies assistant general manager Brian Barber said it did not concern the Phillies. Wood listened to the doctors, trusted his coaches' plan and kept asking: 'How fast can you get me back on the mound? When can I pitch again?' Barr felt encouraged a few weeks into Wood's throwing progression, when he began throwing full speed and didn't feel sore or move slowly afterward. Van Horn said he knew four to five weeks after the injury that they'd get Wood back; it was just a matter of how they used him. What allowed Wood to return to the mound less than two months after the injury? His mindset toward rehab, Hobbs said. 'He was going to attack it, not just worry about what might happen,' Hobbs said. 'He also had the work ethic and was good at the monotonous stuff. He's good at the boring things. He's good at the pre-throws, the post-throw. He's good at making sure he's taking care of himself.' Advertisement He returned April 18, throwing 25 pitches in a third of an inning. Hobbs saw some of Wood's prior excellence in his next outing against Florida, when he struck out five of the 10 batters he faced in three innings. The fastball reached 97-98 mph, Hobbs said, with strong command at the top of the zone. A couple of outings later, he struck out nine in four innings against Texas. He finished his junior season with 69 strikeouts and seven walks in 37 2/3 innings. 'He's got stuff that he'd show up on days where you're like, 'If he's pretty good today, if he commands it pretty well, they're going to have a really hard time getting more than a couple hits,'' Hobbs said. Wood's college pitching career culminated on the mountain top, jumping up and down on the mound and using his hand to underline the Arkansas Razorbacks name on his jersey before his teammates mobbed him. Arkansas ultimately fell to Louisiana State in the semifinals on June 18. But, just moments removed from the joyous jumping with teammates on Charles Schwab Field, Wood told reporters post-game that he was on 'cloud nine.' 🚨 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES NO-HITTER ALERT 🚨 Gage Wood throws the 3rd no-hitter in College World Series HISTORY … with 19 STRIKEOUTS! (🎥: @ESPN) — MLB (@MLB) June 16, 2025 Connor Cunningham, Murray State's starting shortstop, could not have felt more differently after losing the elimination game. Wood had struck out Cunningham, his hometown catch partner, for the second-to-last out. After celebrating with his teammates and before his ESPN interview, Wood found his friend. 'I mean, that was the third no-hitter in the College World Series, first since 1960,' Cunningham said. 'Our season's over and what he does is come over to the dugout and hug me. It shows how good of a human being he is.' On the mound, Wood is '10 feet tall and bulletproof, and when you step in that box, he's pretty confident that he's going to get you out,' Barr said. The same fierceness extends to helping his friends and teammates. For more than two years, Cunningham has worked with Wood during the winter. They did not overlap at Batesville, as Cunningham transferred to the school the year Wood left for Arkansas. But Wood needed a catch partner and Cunningham a throwing partner. They play catch in the football team's indoor facility, then move to the weight room to lift. Wood workshops different pitches on Cunningham. And it's not a problem that Cunningham doesn't have a catcher's mitt, though, 'I won't lie, it kind of hurts the hand a little bit,' he said. Advertisement Cunningham, a high school junior when they started working together, had lots of questions for Wood. On mental cues, what to expect in college, what to do in the weight room, what Arkansas was like. 'Some guys like to work alone,' Cunningham said. 'But him inviting me to work with him, asking him questions to help improve my game (was valuable).' Wood also offered advice to Arkansas teammates when not on the mound, Barr said, calling him their 'biggest fan on the whole team.' 'I mean, he's on the rail,' Barr said. 'He's trying to help you between innings, tell you what he saw, maybe what he was doing. For a lot of our guys, that's pretty irrelevant because they don't throw 100 with an absolute hammer curveball. But I think his confidence bleeds into everybody else.' Wood, upon signing with the Phillies, will report to the team's Clearwater, Fla., facility. His standout run in his home state has ended. He has an opportunity to begin a new one as he climbs the Phillies' system. But memories of delivering Arkansas' greatest pitching performance will never be too far away. 'It's something he'll be able to carry with him his whole life,' Van Horn said. 'I don't think he'll ever have a problem getting a job in this state. I don't think he'll ever have a problem going out to dinner. He'll get a lot of dinners bought for him in this state because that's the way people do it.'
USA Today
14 hours ago
- USA Today
Baylee Klingler, Blaze, win first AUSL series with 10-2 barrage on Sis Bates, Volts
Former Washington Huskies stars Baylee Klingler and Sis Bates wrapped up a three-game series at Husky Softball Stadium on Sunday afternoon as part of the inaugural season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, with the Klingler-led Blaze taking the series 2-1 behind a 10-2 win over the Bates-led Volts in the rubber match. Duke product Ana Gold led the offensive onslaught for the Blaze, going 3-for-3 with a walk and 4 runs batted in on the day. She blasted a solo home run in the second inning, one of three homers for the Blaze on the day, and added an RBI single in the sixth inning, along with a two-run single in the seventh. Klingler was an integral part of the Blaze's offense, reaching base twice. She poked an RBI double down the right field line in the sixth inning, and walked and scored a run in the seventh as her team won its first series of the season. In the series, Klingler, who was a three-time All-American during her career on Montlake, went 5-for-11 with a walk, 3 doubles, 3 RBIs, and 3 runs scored, continuing her long tradition of spraying the ball all over the diamond in Seattle. On the other side, Bates had a quiet day at the plate as she went 0-for-2 with a walk. Over the weekend, the three-time All-American and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year went 3-for-9, collecting all three of her hits during the Volts' only win of the weekend on Friday. Next up, Bates and the Volts will travel to Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas, for a four-game series against the Bandits, while Klingler and the Blaze are off to Dumke Family Softball Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, for four games against the Talons.
