Softball News: 6-9-2026
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Dudley Dent
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Auburn Softball News: 6-9-2026
Montana Fouts has company in professional softball this season:
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Montana Fouts has company in professional softball this season
By Mark Inabinett
al.com
The Athletes Unlimited Softball League ended its first season in storybook fashion, with former Alabama standout Montana Fouts pitching a shutout in the championship-clinching game back at Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
Fouts and the Talons defeated the Bandits 1-0 in Game 2 to end the best-of-three title series and cap the league’s inaugural season.
For the AUSL’s second season, which starts on Tuesday, the Talons and Bandits have more to their names. It’s now the Utah Talons and the Chicago Bandits.
In 2025, the four-team softball circuit barnstormed through the league’s inaugural season by playing games in nine cities in addition to Tuscaloosa.
For 2026, the AUSL has added two teams and placed the franchises in permanent locations, so that each club has a home-and-away schedule this season.
The other AUSL teams include the Carolina Blaze, Portland Cascade, Oklahoma City Spark and Texas Volts.
“Just so pumped,” Fouts said during an appearance on MLB Network. “I feel like to have a home base and have a home crowd. When we were in Utah this past summer, that was one of our favorite places to play, so being the Talons there, I think, is going to be awesome. The crowd’s going to show up and really show us what they’re made of.”
Back with the Talons, Fouts will be joined by three other players with Alabama softball roots in the AUSL’s second season:
Kenleigh Cahalan is a utility player for the Cascade after joining the team from Florida in the 2026 AUSL Draft. Cahalan was a prep star at Hewitt-Trussville High School and played at Alabama in the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Bri Copeland is a pitcher for the Bandits. A former Pelham High School standout, Copeland starred at Indiana in college.
Maddie Penta is a pitcher for the Oklahoma City Spark. A former Auburn All-American, Penta is starting her first AUSL season, but she has played in the Athletes Unlimited All-Star Cup. For the past six summers, Athletes Unlimited softball players have competed in the All-Star Cup for an individual championship under a unique scoring system while playing on teams redrafted each week by the top points producers.
Each AUSL team will play a 29-game regular-season schedule starting on Tuesday with three three-game series starting in Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City and Durham, North Carolina.
“I really just think softball fans are the best fans,” Fouts said. “I feel like they love watching great softball, so they’re going to show up and they’re going to root for who they love to watch, which I feel like now, just being a new league, they’re trying to find what team they love the most and where they want to be based out of, so I feel like now going into this next season, they just have a good idea of who they want to win.
“Last year, they were like, ‘Who’s our favorite team?’ So I think everybody’s got their favorite team, they’ve got their locations, so I’m excited to see how college softball is going to roll into professional softball and how the fans treat it.”
A four-time All-American selection by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association – first team in 2021 and 2023 and second team in 2019 and 2022 -- at Alabama, Fouts posted a 100-32 record with a 1.66 earned-run average in 160 games. In 852.2 innings, Fouts struck out 1,181 with the Crimson Tide. The NFCA Pitcher of the Year in 2021, Fouts threw a no-hitter against UCLA in the Women’s College World Series that season.
But even with those credentials, Fouts’ future as a softball player was uncertain when she finished at Alabama. Now, she’s opening her second season in AUSL, which has the backing of Major League Baseball and a nationally televised schedule. On Tuesday, the Cascade-Blaze game at 4 p.m. CDT is on CBS Sports Network and the Volts-Spark game at 6 p.m. and the Bandits-Talons game at 8 p.m. are on ESPN2.
“It does feel like a dream come true just because we didn’t know what to expect,” Fouts said. “I know that at that time I was like ‘I want to play softball for as long as I can, but I don’t know what that looks like.’
“So now being able to have a home base and have a home team … I had no idea this was going to be the case, but I’m really grateful for it.”
Montana Fouts has company in professional softball this season:
**************************
Montana Fouts has company in professional softball this season
By Mark Inabinett
al.com
The Athletes Unlimited Softball League ended its first season in storybook fashion, with former Alabama standout Montana Fouts pitching a shutout in the championship-clinching game back at Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
Fouts and the Talons defeated the Bandits 1-0 in Game 2 to end the best-of-three title series and cap the league’s inaugural season.
For the AUSL’s second season, which starts on Tuesday, the Talons and Bandits have more to their names. It’s now the Utah Talons and the Chicago Bandits.
In 2025, the four-team softball circuit barnstormed through the league’s inaugural season by playing games in nine cities in addition to Tuscaloosa.
For 2026, the AUSL has added two teams and placed the franchises in permanent locations, so that each club has a home-and-away schedule this season.
The other AUSL teams include the Carolina Blaze, Portland Cascade, Oklahoma City Spark and Texas Volts.
“Just so pumped,” Fouts said during an appearance on MLB Network. “I feel like to have a home base and have a home crowd. When we were in Utah this past summer, that was one of our favorite places to play, so being the Talons there, I think, is going to be awesome. The crowd’s going to show up and really show us what they’re made of.”
Back with the Talons, Fouts will be joined by three other players with Alabama softball roots in the AUSL’s second season:
Kenleigh Cahalan is a utility player for the Cascade after joining the team from Florida in the 2026 AUSL Draft. Cahalan was a prep star at Hewitt-Trussville High School and played at Alabama in the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Bri Copeland is a pitcher for the Bandits. A former Pelham High School standout, Copeland starred at Indiana in college.
Maddie Penta is a pitcher for the Oklahoma City Spark. A former Auburn All-American, Penta is starting her first AUSL season, but she has played in the Athletes Unlimited All-Star Cup. For the past six summers, Athletes Unlimited softball players have competed in the All-Star Cup for an individual championship under a unique scoring system while playing on teams redrafted each week by the top points producers.
Each AUSL team will play a 29-game regular-season schedule starting on Tuesday with three three-game series starting in Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City and Durham, North Carolina.
“I really just think softball fans are the best fans,” Fouts said. “I feel like they love watching great softball, so they’re going to show up and they’re going to root for who they love to watch, which I feel like now, just being a new league, they’re trying to find what team they love the most and where they want to be based out of, so I feel like now going into this next season, they just have a good idea of who they want to win.
“Last year, they were like, ‘Who’s our favorite team?’ So I think everybody’s got their favorite team, they’ve got their locations, so I’m excited to see how college softball is going to roll into professional softball and how the fans treat it.”
A four-time All-American selection by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association – first team in 2021 and 2023 and second team in 2019 and 2022 -- at Alabama, Fouts posted a 100-32 record with a 1.66 earned-run average in 160 games. In 852.2 innings, Fouts struck out 1,181 with the Crimson Tide. The NFCA Pitcher of the Year in 2021, Fouts threw a no-hitter against UCLA in the Women’s College World Series that season.
But even with those credentials, Fouts’ future as a softball player was uncertain when she finished at Alabama. Now, she’s opening her second season in AUSL, which has the backing of Major League Baseball and a nationally televised schedule. On Tuesday, the Cascade-Blaze game at 4 p.m. CDT is on CBS Sports Network and the Volts-Spark game at 6 p.m. and the Bandits-Talons game at 8 p.m. are on ESPN2.
“It does feel like a dream come true just because we didn’t know what to expect,” Fouts said. “I know that at that time I was like ‘I want to play softball for as long as I can, but I don’t know what that looks like.’
“So now being able to have a home base and have a home team … I had no idea this was going to be the case, but I’m really grateful for it.”
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