Baseball’s most star-studded night of the offseason featured Athletes Unlimited Softball League notables in Las Vegas. Four of the AUSL’s best from the 2025 season strutted the red carpet at the Major League Baseball Awards on Thursday night.
Erin Coffel (MVP and Hitter of the Year), Georgina Corrick (Pitcher of the Year), Ana Gold (Rookie of the Year), and Hannah Flippen (Defensive Player of the Year) were honored during a segment of the award show. They were announced live at the event in the Chelsea Theater by MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds and softball icon Jennie Finch.
“Coming off our first season, it was just an iconic way to bring it all together, being here, being around all of these awesome people,” Coffel said via MLB.com. “It’s a super cool way to recap the season.”
In addition to being honored at the event, Coffel and Corrick were brought on stage for an interview with Reynolds. The pair reflected on a triumphant first year while looking ahead to the promising future for professional softball.
“Having the inaugural season and having these amazing athletes start it off so well, I think it’s important because history has to start somewhere,” Corrick said on stage. “So it’s exciting to be the first step on the long journey.”
Year one for the league included a 12-stop barnstorming tour across the country with 24 sellouts.
The inclusion of the AUSL at the MLB Awards is the latest instance of the budding partnership between the two leagues. Before the start of the inaugural season, MLB announced its first-of-its-kind partnership with a women’s professional sports league. The ongoing support from the MLB centers on a strategic investment in the AUSL to help the new league become established. It includes joint sales and marketing efforts, extensive promotional support, and broadcasts on MLB Network and MLB.com to raise the visibility of the AUSL and its athletes.
“This is an awesome event,” ROY Ana Gold said via MLB.com. “To be a partner of MLB has been amazing, and we’re so excited to be here and have a very long, successful partnership. Our first season was amazing. I think it was the first step to a long, successful league we’re going to have.”
Defensive Player of the Year Hannah Flippen echoed Gold’s sentiment.
“Being here with some of the best athletes in the world, it’s such an honor,” Flippen said. “MLB supporting the AUSL has been a turning point in women’s sports, I truly believe, especially for softball. Just being able to inspire young girls to be able to have softball as a career one day — that’s our goal.”
The coming year for the AUSL is set to take major strides for the league organizationally. The league announced on Wednesday that it will expand to six teams and shift to a city-based format in 2026. The existing organization, the Oklahoma City Spark, joined the league. The Cascade was revealed as the latest franchise.
This comes on the heels of a multi-year distribution deal with ESPN. As part of this three-year agreement, ESPN will carry 50 exclusive AUSL games annually beginning in 2026, including 47 regular-season matchups and the best-of-three AUSL Championship Series. Coverage will span ESPN platforms, highlighted by a marquee game on ABC — the first time professional softball will ever air on broadcast television in the U.S.
The AUSL Draft will take place on Dec. 1 on ESPNU at 7 p.m. ET, revealing how the athletes will be distributed amongst the six teams with live selections from the general managers.
Savanna Collins is the Senior Reporter for the AUSL. You can follow her on X @savannaecollins.
