Mexico cartel violence prompted the Mexican Softball League to cancel games on Sunday, as the situation in Jalisco disrupts the LMS among other women's sports ventures.
The pro women's league cancelled Sunday night's matchup between Diablos Rojos Femenil and Bravos de León, announcing the decision as a safety precaution following the Mexico cartel activity.
The violence began after the Mexican military killed the leader of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, considered the most powerful cartel in Mexico, on Sunday. Cartel members burned cars and blocked roads across nearly a dozen states, with authorities reporting at least 70 related deaths.
Six US athletes currently compete in the third-year Mexican pro league, including NCAA and Athletes Unlimited stars like Rachel Garcia, Jazmyn Jackson, Janae Jefferson, Baylee Klingler, Giulia Koutsoyanopulos, and Erika Piancastelli.
Following the violence, the United States and Canada advised their citizens in Mexico to shelter in place due, with Canadian player Natalie Wideman posting an Instagram update confirming her safety.
Four players subsequently requested releases from Guadalajara-based Jalisco Charros on Wednesday. US athlete Nicola Simpson, Canadians Natalie Wildman and Janet Lung, and Dutch player Eva Voortman all cited personal reasons for leaving.
The ongoing unrest has also impacted other women's sports. World Aquatics cancelled the Diving World Cup, scheduled for March 5th through 8th in Zapopan near Guadalajara, after conducteing a thorough risk assessment and considered travel restrictions from international governments.
The LMS is currently winding down its third season, with playoffs scheduled to begin March 10th.
The 2026 NCAA softball season is officially in full swing, as the Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational brings 16 top programs — including 10 ranked teams — to Florida for four days of championship-level matchups this week.
A full seven of the nation's Top 10 teams will feature in this edition of the annual competition, with No. 6 Florida State, No. 8 Nebraska, No. 8 Texas A&M, and No. 10 LSU joining three of last season's Women's College World Series contenders — No. 7 UCLA, No. 3 Tennessee, and 2025 runners-up, No. 1 Texas Tech — in Clearwater.
With so many elite rosters, the invitational's 40-game slate includes 17 ranked matchups — and eight Top 10 showdowns.
Three of those eight games will feature Tennessee, who drew arguably the toughest Clearwater weekend with clashes against the No. 6 Seminoles, No. 7 Bruins, and No. 8 Cornhuskers — a team that stunned defending champion No. 2 Texas with an 8-5 opening-weekend upset loss on Saturday.
Friday's clash between the Huskers and Vols — a rematch of the pair's 2025 Super Regional — will also serve as an early-season litmus test of two of college softball's best pitchers, with a duel in the circle expected between Tennessee standout Karlyn Pickens and Nebraska ace Jordy Frahm (née Bahl).
But first, the top-ranked Red Raiders — led by two-time All-American pitcher and the sport's only multimillion-dollar NIL athlete NiJaree Canady — will headline Thursday's docket in their own Super Regional rematch against the No. 6 Seminoles.
How to watch NCAA softball at the 2026 Clearwater Invitational
The stacked Clearwater Invitational began on Thursday morning, with the day's spotlight clash between No. 1 Texas Tech and No. 6 Florida State taking the field at 1 PM ET, airing live on ESPN2.
All 40 games will air live across ESPN platforms.
Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) made a historic move this week, signing Tennessee senior pitcher Karlyn Pickens to the first-ever NIL deal with a pro league seen in the NCAA sport.
As part of her contract, Pickens will use social media and participate in other marketing opportunities to promote the newly expanded AUSL as the premier place for NCAA athletes to launch their professional softball careers.
"When I was growing up, I didn't really see [pro] softball… I didn't really think there was an option to go pro," said the Lady Vols star in Wednesday's AUSL announcement. "It's been just a few years, and now everyone's dream is to go to AUSL and continue their softball career."
After kicking off her NCAA tenure as the 2023 SEC Freshman of the Year, the two-time All-American and reigning Softball American Pitcher of the Year posted a 1.17 ERA across her 44 appearances last season, leading the Lady Vols from the circle all the way to the Women's College World Series semifinals in Oklahoma City.
Pickens also shattered records along the way, becoming the first collegiate ace to top Tennessee legend Monica Abbott's fastest NCAA pitch mark of 77mph from 2012 with a 78.2mph throw last March — before breaking her own record by hurling a blistering 79.4mph pitch at the Super Regionals last May.
Making NIL history this week is likely the 22-year-old's first step with the AUSL, which recently locked its six teams into home cities across the US last month — including assigning the Blaze to Pickens's home state of North Carolina.
"I never would've imagined that the pro softball league is what it is now, but it's also come to my home state," said Pickens.
How to watch new AUSL NIL athlete Karlyn Pickens
Pickens will kick off her senior season with No. 4-ranked Tennessee at this week's 2026 NFCA Leadoff Classic, where the Vols' slate includes clashes against No. 23 Liberty and No. 5 Oregon, among others.
Tennessee will begin the invitational against unranked BYU at 7 PM ET on Thursday, with live coverage of the tilt streaming on GameChanger.
Professional softball put down roots coast-to-coast on Tuesday, when the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) unveiled the home cities and stadiums for each of the expanded league's teams for the 2026 season — and beyond.
After adopting a touring model for its four-team inaugural 2025 campaign, AUSL's move into home markets coincides with the league's expansion, as the now-six-team second-year league welcomed the Cascade and Spark in November.
With Tuesday's announcement, the previously independent Spark will continue to play in Oklahoma City at Oklahoma Christian University's Tom Heath Field, with fellow expansion side Cascade making its home at Hillsboro Ballpark, in Portland, Oregon.
Meanwhile, the four original teams will re-debut as the Carolina Blaze, Chicago Bandits, Texas Volts, and Utah Talons.
The Blaze will play their home games at Duke University's Smith Family Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, while the Bandits' permanent home will be at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Illinois — a longtime hub for pro softball.
The Volts will play at Dell Diamond, the home of Minor League Baseball's Round Rock Express, the Triple-A team for MLB's Texas Rangers.
Lastly, the University of Utah will house the Talons, with the reigning AUSL champions taking over the Utes' Dumke Family Stadium in Salt Lake City beginning this year.
"This is about creating lasting connections between our athletes, our teams, and the communities they represent, and setting up the sport of softball for long-term success at the professional level," said AUSL commissioner Kim Ng in Tuesday's announcement.
All six teams will kick off their 2026 season on June 9th, when games will be played across multiple cities simultaneously for the first time in AUSL history.
How to purchase 2026 AUSL season tickets
Softball fans can now score 2026 season tickets for their AUSL home teams online.
Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) stocked up by adding 43 former NCAA and Olympic stars to its ranks on Monday night, with Talons utility player Maya Brady — niece of retired NFL legend Tom Brady — leading the charge as the No. 1 overall pick by the incoming Oklahoma City Spark in the league's expansion draft.
Starting the inaugural 2025 AUSL campaign on injured reserve, the former UCLA standout went on to feature in six games for the championship-winning Talons, registering one double, one home run, and five RBIs on the season.
The now-six -team league absorbed the previously independent Spark as part of an initial expansion plan, acquiring the Oklahoma City-based squad with the intention of finding permanent homes for all AUSL teams in the near future.
Also joining the AUSL next year is new franchise Cascade, which snagged Volts pitcher and former University of Oklahoma ace Sam Landry as the No. 2 overall pick on Monday.
Though the four original teams protected five players each, the Spark and Cascade raided their rosters in the expansion draft, claiming stars like infielders Sydney Romero (Talons) and Jessi Warren (Volts) as well as pitchers Alana Vawter (Blaze) and Payton Gottshall (Volts) for their debut lineups.
Immediately following the expansion draft, all six teams took part in an allocation draft, selecting athletes from either the 2025 AUSL Reserve Pool or those previously competing outside the league.
Former Oklahoma and Oklahoma State pitcher Kelly Maxwell earned the top pick in the allocation draft, with the new Cascade player joined by other recent NCAA softball legends like former Sooners Kinzie Hansen, Jayda Coleman, and Jocelyn Alo, Florida State's Kat Sandercock and Sydney Sherrill, Washington's Sis Bates, and Clemson's Valerie Cagle.
Women's sports stars stepped into the business spotlight this week, as standout athletes like 2025 French Open champ Coco Gauff, current WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers, and USWNT star Trinity Rodman landed on the 2026 edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30 List.
Texas Tech pitcher NiJaree Canady, Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston, and Olympic rock climber Brooke Raboutou also made the cut for the US, with Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier named as one of the list's All-Star Alumni.
"Even though I love winning, it took me a while to realize that your life is still going to be your life regardless if you win or lose, and at that point you play freer," Gauff told the publication.
Designed to honor rising talents leading transformative change across business, culture, and entrepreneurship, the featured athletes on the 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 list are making waves both on and off the field of play.
At 21 years old, Gauff is climbing the WTA's career prize money rankings while also topping Sportico's highest-paid women's sports athletes list, with fellow 30 Under 30s like 23-year-old Boston are investing in NWSL expansion teams.
Elsewhere, 22-year-old Canady signed two consecutive million-dollar NIL deals with Texas Tech, 24-year-old Bueckers has a stake in offseason venture Unrivaled, and 23-year-old Rodman teamed up with Adidas while also negotiating a new playing contract as a free agent.
The broadcast reach of Athletes Unlimited got even stronger this week, as the pro women's sports organization scored a blockbuster media rights extension with ESPN on Wednesday, ensuring three more years of basketball, volleyball, and softball coverage.
"The growth we've seen across Athletes Unlimited's leagues speaks to the power and appeal of women's sports," said ESPN EVP of programming and acquisitions Rosalyn Durant. "We're excited to deepen our partnership and bring even more of these moments and athletes to fans everywhere."
As part of the extended partnership, ESPN will exclusively air 50 Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) games annually, including 47 regular-season matchups and the AUSL Championship Series, with the company's titan channel ABC also committed to airing the first-ever pro softball game on network television.
The broadcast giant already has a vested interest in softball's future, with the most recent Women's College World Series Finals delivering a record-high 2.2 million viewers across ESPN networks last June.
AU's basketball and volleyball footprints are also growing, with all 24 games from each competition's season now set to air live each year.
"This renewed and expanded partnership affirms the strength of our properties and reflects the growing enthusiasm for women's professional sports," said AU chief broadcast officer Cheri Kempf.
The Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) crowned its inaugural champion on Sunday, with the No. 1-seed Talons lifting the first-ever AUSL trophy after sweeping the No. 2-seed Bandits in the weekend's 2025 Championship Series.
Battling inclement weather all weekend, the Talons finished out Saturday's rain-delayed Game 1 to a 3-1 win early Sunday morning, before avoiding a winner-take-all Game 3 by claiming the AUSL title in a narrow 1-0 second victory on Sunday afternoon.
AUSL Pitcher of the Year Georgina Corrick and former Alabama ace Montana Fouts held the powerful Bandits offense at bay throughout the two wins, while infielder Sydney Romero — a former two-time NCAA champion at Oklahoma — secured the Talons' title with a Game 2 sixth-inning home run.
"I wouldn't have wanted to do this anywhere else, with anybody else," Fouts said after the championship win. "I feel like we really are family. That's what makes this so special. Obviously, winning is awesome, but I just feel like whenever you step on the field with people like this, you've already won."
In addition to the Talons' 2025 championship trophy, AUSL at-large garnered plenty of success throughout its debut season, selling out 14 of the first 29 games while averaging 117,000 viewers per game on ESPN2 — a 65% increase over the 2024 Athletes Unlimited format.
That boost saw the broadcaster upgrade the final series from ESPN2 to ESPN.
"It's really been, in some ways, eye-opening," AUSL commissioner Kim Ng told Sports Business Journal earlier this month. "I don't think that any of us thought that we would get this type of reception. But everyone here is so incredibly excited."
The Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) enters its inaugural postseason this weekend, with the Talons and Bandits to battle in the 2025 Championship Series to determine the first-ever title-winner of the new four-team pro league.
The 2025 AUSL Championship Series will run as a best-of-three competition between the top two finishers in the standings, with the Talons entering as favorites behind a league-best 18-6 season record.
Meanwhile, the offense-heavy Bandits finished regular-season play in second place with a 15-9 record, despite leading the AUSL in batting average, runs scored, doubles, home runs, total bases, slugging percentage, hits, triples, on-base percentage, and RBIs.
The Bandits' offense — led by 2025 AUSL Hitter of the Year Erin Coffel — will have to contend with the Talons' league-leading defense.
Helmed by this year's Defensive Player of the Year, Talons shortstop Hannah Flippen, the inaugural 10-player AUSL All-Defensive Team included a full five athletes from the league-leading roster.
Pitcher of the Year Georgina Corrick also made the elite defenders list, earning her two honors behind an AUSL-leading 2.04 ERA for the Talons and the league's only perfect record in the circle.
Notably, despite the Talons finishing the 2025 regular season on top, the Bandits have been the toughest task for the league leaders this season: The No. 2 squad handed them four of their six losses, outscoring the Talons 45-31 across their eight matchups.
"They've been a thorn in our side a little bit," acknowledged Talons head coach Howard Dobson.
Even so, this weekend wipes the slate clean.
"It doesn't matter what's happened up to this point," said Bandits head coach Stacey Nuveman-Deniz. "It's literally which team comes at it the sharpest, making the fewest mistakes."
How to watch the 2025 AUSL Championship Series
The Talons and Bandits will take the field for the inaugural AUSL Championship Series at 3 PM ET on Saturday, airing live on ESPN.
Sunday's 2 PM ET clash will also air on ESPN, with ESPN2 claiming Monday's potential 7 PM ET winner-take-all finale.
The Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) threw its very first pitch this weekend, as the four-team pro league ushers in a new era of US softball.
Saturday saw the inaugural season kick off in two sold-out stadiums, as the Bandits recorded the league's first-ever win by defeating the Talons 3-1 in Rosemont, Illinois, before the Volts capped opening day with a 5-1 extra-inning victory over the Blaze in Wichita, Kansas.
"To be able to run for those who walked for us is just incredible, and I'm really excited to be a part of it," said Volts outfielder McKenzie Clark following their historic opening win, acknowledging the sport's trailblazers who fought for and built AUSL from the ground up.
The Volts currently sit atop the AUSL standings with a 2-1 record, followed by a second-place tie between the Talons and Bandits at 1-1. The Blaze narrowly trail with a 1-2 tally.
The traveling seven-week inaugural season will see each team contest 24 games across 10 cities to determine the top two squads who will compete in a best-of-three championship series in late July.
With rosters full of former collegiate standouts, NCAA softball fans will have plenty of favorites to root for, as rookies like Talons infielder and 2025 Collegiate Player of the Year Bri Ellis (Arkansas), Volts catcher Michaela Edenfield (Florida State), Blaze pitcher Emma Lemley (Virginia Tech), and Volts pitcher Sam Landry (Oklahoma) make their professional debuts.
"I was like, 'I was born ready. Give me the ball,'" Landry — the No. 1 overall pick in the first-ever AUSL College Draft — told her coaches prior to starting in the circle in Monday's 3-1 Volts loss to the Blaze.
How to watch the AUSL this season
AUSL is back in action on Tuesday night, with the Talons and Bandits closing out their three-game opening series at 8 PM ET. Live coverage of the game will air on ESPN2.
Teams will then hit the road for their next locales, with the Volts kicking off a series against the Bandits in Sulphur, Louisiana, at 7 PM ET on Thursday, airing live on ESPN2.
Meanwhile, the Talons and Blaze will be en route to Chattanooga, Tennessee, with their series first matchup taking the field at 6:30 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on MLB.com.