The Athletes Unlimited Softball League announced Kayla Kowalik, Rachel Garcia and Keilani Ricketts as the opening team captains for the 2026 AUSL All-Star Cup, which begins Aug. 8 at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Illinois.
Kowalik will lead Team 1, Garcia will captain Team 2, and Ricketts will head Team 3 as the league’s top 45 players open the four-week competition. The captains will draft their teams before the opening series and work alongside team facilitators to make lineup decisions, guide practices, and manage in-game strategy.
The All-Star Cup features a format in which teams are redrafted after each series. Following every series, the top three players on the individual leaderboard become captains and draft new teams for the next slate of games.
Team 1 Captain: Kayla Kowalik
Kowalik enters the 2026 All-Star Cup as its defending champion after claiming last year’s individual title with 1,590 leaderboard points. The Carolina Blaze catcher led the 2025 competition in batting average (.486), hits (17), RBIs (11), total bases (27), win points (990) and MVP points (300), and opened the event by winning her first eight games.
Despite missing time because of injury during the 2026 AUSL season, Kowalik made an impact when healthy. She hit .344 with 11 hits, two doubles and three RBIs while posting a .382 on-base percentage across 10 starts for the Blaze.
Team 2 Captain: Rachel Garcia
Garcia returns to the All-Star Cup after earning runner-up honors in 2025 with 1,448 leaderboard points and becoming just the second athlete in Athletes Unlimited history to collect four career medalist finishes. She also ranked among the event’s top pitchers with a 1.88 ERA while leading the field with 37.1 innings pitched and three complete games.
The Texas Volts right-hander struck out 52 batters in 44.1 innings during the 2026 regular season in 12 appearances with a 4.26 ERA. Garcia also contributed offensively with five hits and four RBIs.
Team 3 Captain: Keilani Ricketts
Ricketts rounds out the opening group of captains after earning the first AU medal of her career with a third-place finish in the 2025 All-Star Cup. The veteran left-hander went 2-0 with a 1.56 ERA over 27.0 innings during last year’s event.
A key member of the Carolina Blaze pitching staff in 2026, Ricketts appeared in 17 games and made three starts, recording a 3.88 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 39.2 innings while holding opposing hitters to a .293 batting average.
What Comes Next
The 2026 AUSL All-Star Cup runs Aug. 8-30 at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Illinois. Throughout the four-week competition, players earn individual leaderboard points through team success, statistical performance and MVP voting. At the conclusion of each series, the top three players in the standings will become the next captains and draft new teams for the following series.
