Director of Photography Jade Hewitt and Photographer Julia Kostopoulos spent 2025 working to tell the story of the inaugural Athletes Unlimited Softball League season and its athletes, one frame at a time.

After shooting and sifting through hundreds of thousands of images, the two take you through their favorite images of 2025 and share why they stand out amongst the rest.

Tori Vidales screams as she runs the bases following a home run in the AUSL Championship.

Tori Vidales – Jade Hewitt

Canon R1 | Canon 70-200 mm | F 3.5 / ISO 1600 / 1/4000 s

I consider this to be a career photo. If there was a singular moment that sums up the extraordinary inaugural season of the AUSL, this is it.

Tori’s homerun in Game One of the Championship Series was like nothing I’ve experienced in professional softball. The feeling from the crowd was electric, but even through all the noise, I could still hear Tori’s yell clear as day.

It was sheer luck that I was in the first base dugout, and even weirder because I was wedged into a tight spot next to a swinging door, sitting on a bucket, trying to shoot through two nets. Tori made contact, and I sprinted out of the dugout, clicking like crazy. In the exact moment of this image, I thought to myself, “NO WAY”. Sure enough, once I got back to my laptop and saw the photo in full screen with Tori’s expression, her motion, and the signage in the background, I considered this to be a perfect photo.

This image ended up on a Topps card, which is the perfect ending to this moment and this season.

Taylor McQuillin warming up in the circle in front of a pink and blue sunset.

Taylor McQuillin – Jade Hewitt

Canon R1 | Canon 16-35 mm | F 6.3 / ISO 2500 / 1/800 s

What a moment!! Sunset images are always super fun to photograph, but stressful. You don’t have a lot of time before the sky is gone, so your stress levels are through the roof!

The sky was stunning, but the sun was fading fast. The Bandits went out to play defense, and I ran out, lay flat on the ground, and photographed Tay’s three warm-up pitches. Within 60 seconds, the moment was over!

Unlike many of the photos we take, this moment was extended during the next night when the image (and I) ended up on the broadcast. I didn’t realize the broadcast camera was on me, so I naturally tried to duck and cover. I looked like a goofball on the broadcast, and the players definitely roasted me enough for this photo and memory to last a lifetime.

Dejah Mulipola in Volts catcher gear in motion as she throws to second base.

Deja Mulipola – Jade Hewitt

Canon R1 | Canon 70-200 mm | F 3.5 / ISO 320 / 1/60 s

This photo is a career progress photo that took quite a while for me to chase. With our softball season being such a short amount of time, there’s pressure to capture the games with the best and most amount of images possible. That makes it difficult to find time to experiment and try to build your personal photo arsenal of skills. I’d been wanting to shoot slow shutter for a few years, but had yet to have the time and flexibility to do so.

Finally, one night in Rosemont, I had two freelance photographers helping to cover the game, so I spent four or five innings shooting slow shutter… It’s difficult! It’s a challenging skill that takes so much practice and repetition, but within that game, I caught around seven images that I was happy with.

Being a former college catcher, I also have a personal love for the throwdown, and I’m always trying to find something new in the motion. There’s no better subject than Dejah, and I was pretty hyped as I walked back to the dugout and saw the image on my camera.

Sierra Sacco raises her arms above her head in a green Talons jersey as she rounds the bases with 'home run' behind her on the video board.

Sierra Sacco – Julia Kostopoulos

Canon R6 Mark II | Canon 70-200 mm | F 2.8 / ISO 125 / 1/2000 s

During the 2025 AUSL season, I uploaded over 15,000 edited images, so although I have many more than just one favorite photo, I keep coming back to this photo as the photo. I mean, come on, how do you top your first Topps card?

Not only was June 7 the first AUSL game, but it was also the first time I took photos for Athletes Unlimited. I put pressure on myself to impress, to capture every moment perfectly, which, yes, is nearly an unattainable goal. However, with the mindset of wanting that to happen, you just might find yourself in the right place at the right time with Sierra Sacco hitting the very first home run in AUSL history. And if you’re really lucky, at the exact time that she’s rounding second base with her hands high in the air and the most ecstatic expression on her face, ‘HOME RUN’ will appear behind her on the scoreboard.

I mentioned to Jade after the game that I had gotten Sierra running the bases after she hit the home run and showed her the sequence of photos. After going through them, Jade just looked at me. She said, ‘Wait, go back,’ pointed at my computer screen, and said, ‘THAT!’ A couple of days later, I received a text from Jade that this photo was most likely going to be on a Topps card. After that, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t check the Topps website every single day. A couple of days went by, and I received another text from Jade, but this time it was just a link to this photograph of Sierra Sacco’s home run on a Topps card.

A pretty legendary weekend, I’d say.

The AUSL Player Executive Committee walking through a field. From left to right: Aubrey Leach, Morgan Zerkle, Megan Faraimo, Sharlize Palacios, and Sierra Romero.

Player Executive Committee (PEC) – Jade Hewitt

Canon R1 | Sigma 50 mm Art | F 3.5 / ISO 250 / 1/4000 s

No season is complete without a photoshoot highlighting the PEC. We went to a favorite location in the heart of Rosemont and shot for about an hour and a half. About 10 minutes before this photo, I had the group running towards me from about 50 yards away, then slowing down to a walk. On the first shot, they all took off running, and the photos I captured looked like they were from a “Twilight” movie. Everyone was laughing so hard, so when we shifted into a different setup, everyone was feeling loosey goosey, and the vibes were high.

When I look at these photos, I think “power of the women”. That’s why this photoshoot will always be special to me, because women’s sports have such a beautiful element of being a sisterhood. These women are united by softball, but have such diverse personalities, backgrounds, and styles. Having the opportunity to bring these five women together as themselves, not on a team, is so meaningful to women in sport and fun to capture.

All-Star Cup

Jessi Warren rounds the bases in a blue AUSL jersey as she smiles.

Jessi Warren – Jade Hewitt

Canon R1 | Canon 70-200 mm | F 3.5 / ISO 320 / 1/4000 s

There’s nothing like a straight-up banger action shot! With the creation of the This Is Legendary campaign, we had the opportunity to photograph every stadium with the signage and slogan. It created a challenge to find ways to incorporate the message into our photo work, but sometimes (like in this image), we just get lucky.

Jessi absolutely smashed this solo homer to the scoreboard for Team Blue to go up 1-0. There are two things that I think about when I see this photo: the first is the POWER that Jessi swings with. For her to muscle this ball to right center is just so, so impressive. The second is the JOY that Jessi plays with. If you watch the video of this homerun, she’s smiling ear to ear and celebrating the entire trot around the bases. Her energy is always contagious.

Jessi has been a long-standing pro softball player who competes at a high level year after year, and it’s a blast to photograph her and watch her journey from the front row.

Aliyah Andrews silhouetted against the sun under the stadium light.

Aliyah Andrews – Jade Hewitt

Canon R1 | Sigma 50 mm Art | F 16 / ISO 250 / 1/2000 s

If you follow Athletes Unlimited on social media, you know that there is a similar image of Aliyah from 2023! We were hanging out pre-game in the same third base dugout in Rosemont, and the sun was in just the right spot at 4:43 p.m.

I asked Aliyah the same question: “Hey, wanna take a pic?” and to no one’s surprise, she grabbed her glove and popped out of the dugout, game for anything. This time, I knew how I wanted to edit the image and how it would accentuate the blue sky instead of a golden sky. A minute or so later, we were done, but with silhouette photos, it can be hit or miss. The photo might look good in-camera, but when you begin to edit, you just can’t pull it off (for various reasons). Luckily, the image came out exactly as I had envisioned: crispy clouds, warmer blues, and her jersey just lifted enough to be able to read AUSL.

Montana Fouts in motion, pitching in an AUSL jersey.

Montana Fouts – Jade Hewitt

Canon R1 | Sigma 35 mm Art | F 3.5 / ISO 640 / 1/4000 s

This year was my 10th year shooting professional softball at the Ballpark at Rosemont. While I’ve shot extensively from every nook and cranny, it also means that it can be challenging to find new ways to photograph the same game.

Earlier this year, I bought some Prism FX filters to try and add some motion and alternative looks to our action photography. This particular shot was between innings of a game towards the end of the season. At this point, we’ve had so many games and been around each other so much that Montana doesn’t even notice I’m there. Routine is such a big part of softball, and when you’ve done something so many times, it allows me to feel comfortable and more creatively open, and I think the players trust that I’m not going to get in their way and have their best interests at heart.

I had the filter rotated to the left side of the lens so that the motion would be on the back side of Montana as she pushed forward. I got some other really dynamic shots with these filters and can’t wait to use them more in 2026!

Victoria Hayward leans against the dugout ledge in an orange AUSL jersey.

Victoria Hayward – Julia Kostopoulos

Canon R6 Mark II | Canon 70-200 mm | F 2.8 / ISO 500 / 1/1250 s

When we do something for the last time, we don’t always realize it until it’s already done and there’s no going back to it.

I went into the last weekend of the All-Star Cup trying to remember that, knowing that there were a handful of athletes who would be retiring. Those five athletes, Vic included, stayed in my mind during each game. My goal was to capture moments, big and small, from their last home run to the last time putting on their batting gloves, both on the field and in the dugout.

I wanted the photographs I took to evoke emotion. I wanted to take photographs that ten years from now they could look at and have every feeling they had then rush back to them. I hope that’s what this photo does for Vic. It truly was an honor to photograph these five athletes’ last professional softball season.