Last week, the center of the fastpitch softball world was in Oklahoma City, as the Women’s College World Series was an exciting three-game series that saw the Univ. of Texas top Texas Tech.

This week, the mecca of the sport is a five-hour drive from OKC to the Northeast as Kansas City hots three big softball events:

1. the KC Pro Exhibition Series, which begins today and runs through Friday,
2. the Connect Camp – Kansas City taking place today for grads in the 2026, ’27, ’28, ’29 and ’30 classes.
3. the Top Gun Invitational featuring over 300 teams from 31 states which runs from Thursday through title games on Sunday.

This is Brentt Eads of Line Drive Softball… I’m excited to return to Top Gun Invitational with my wife Shannon as we look forward to catching up with old friends and making new ones!

Here’s a look at the three big events running concurrently in the Kansas City metro area with the camp today, the pros kicking off today as well and the club tourney beginning tomorrow…

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The KC Pro Exhibition Series

• When: Wednesday, June 11 through Friday, June 13
• Where: Blue Valley Northwest High School, Overland KS

The Details:

 As the pro side of the sport continues to evolve and develop, this three-day series will feature three teams: the New York Rise, the Florida Vibe and the Kansas City Diamonds, the latter of which will be comprised of talented juniors and seniors at the college level organized by the host event producer Top Gun Events.

Pro softball stars like Taylor Pleasants, Jordan Johnson, Nicole Mendes, Hannah Gammill, and Lauren Krings will be among the standouts competing.

This event is general admission with open seating.

We asked Jeremy McDowell, CEO of Top Gun Events, and Robb Behymer, Owner and Co-Founder of Top Gun Events, how the Pro Series came to be.

“We were contacted by the Florida Vibe about four to five months ago,” Behymer begins, “and talking to them about tying into tournaments, to bring in for local municipalities and that’s how the Pro Series started.”

McDowell added:

“(Vibe President) Ryan Moore and I talked and the Rise also agreed to to come to Kansas City.”

Why, we asked, is it happening this week?

“It’s a labor of love,” McDowell continued. “Our goal is to have the KC Diamonds become the city’s first pro softball team by next year.”

“We’re dipping our toes into the water—we have the state’s support and look to have a stadium, show off the talent and athleticism in the sport. We see this as being bigger than just a one-week series!”

The two softball leads also feel Kansas is ripe to become a leader in the sport.

“Nija (Canady of Texas Tech, the 2025 National Player of the Year) is from Topeka, Kansas,” Behymer explains, “and there’s a lot of synergy to get this done. We are paving the way.”

Here’s a look at the dates and times of all that’s happening this week in KC!

PRO SERIES – Wednesday, Game Night 1:

The action starts tonight (Wednesday) with a double header starting off at 4 pm CST matching the Florida Vibe and the KC Diamonds.

After the game, the Vibe players will sign autographs before a Home Run derby kicks off at 6 pm followed by a 7:30 pm contest pitting the New York Rise vs. KC Diamonds.

The HR Derby is sponsored by Wilson, Evo-Shield and Louisville Slugger as part of the Kryo bat launch.

Both teams – the Rise and Diamonds – will sign autographs beginning at 9 pm after their game.

PRO SERIES – Thursday, Game Night 2:

Thursday morning starts off with a “Pro Camp” taking place at 9 am to 11 am for youth players and will be run by all three teams—the Diamonds, Rise and Vibe.

In the evening another double-header will take place at 5 pm.

PRO SERIES – Friday, Game Night 3:

The closing day of the pro series has a final double header beginning at 5 pm.

*** For more on the Pro Series, check out an article we featured on Line Drive on Jan. 8, 2025 titled Pro News: Top Gun Events Brings Professional Softball to Kansas City in June

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The 2025 CONNECT Camp – Kansas City

• When: Wednesday, June 11
• Where: Mid America and Mid-America West Sports Complexes, Shawnee KS

The Details

Run by Nate Eaton and his staff at Diamond Direction, the CONNECT Softball Camps “connect” softball prospects in the class of 2026 through 2030 and today has upwards of 350 top players from across the country participating and hoping to catch the eye of the college coaches and scouts.

Today’s event—the CONNECT Camp – Kansas City – will include college programs who have coaches on-site such as the National Champion Texas Longhorns as well as more than 25 elite programs including ones from the SEC, Big 12, ACC, Big Ten… click HERE to see which colleges are expected to be in attendance today.

Behymer, for one, is a big fan of how the CONNECT camps are run.

“It’s not a cattle call camp,” he says. “All the colleges hold individual sessions allowing players to sign up and camp in front of coaches in at least three or four sessions with only 20 kids per session.”

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The 2025 Top Gun Invitational (“TGI”)

• When: Thursday, June 12 through Sunday, June 15
• Where: Premier Venues include Mid-America & Mid-America West complexes, Shawnee KS

The Details

After a hugely successful event last year – click HERE to see the results from the 2024 Top Gun Invitational – this summer’s version, which is year No. 12 of the prestigious Midwest tourney, once again is loaded with many of the best players and teams in the travel fastpitch universe.

The TGI is broken down into two divisions – Maverick and Viper – including teams from ages 12U up through 18U. A huge asset is that all the recruitable teams and talent primarily competes at two facilities—the two complexes—which combine have 34 fields and close to 250 recruitable prospects.

The line-up of talent-loaded teams includes some of the top club programs in the sport including orgs such as the Aces, Batbusters, Beverly Bandits, Corona Angels, Firecrackers, Georgia Impact, Hotshots, Impact and many more from A to Z… and that’s just in the 18U division!

One team to watch in the 18U division is the Oklahoma Athletics – Madden team which is loaded with talent including pitcher Hannah Wells who just yesterday was announced as the 2025 Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year.

This is year No. 13 of the TGI and it has no doubt become a “must attend” for many of the elite players and programs in the sport.

What, we asked Behymer, has been the key to the success of the event for more than a dozen years?

“I believe it’s our customer service and willingness to go above and beyond,” he said. “Ironically, COVID had a part in helping us grow; Kansas didn’t shut down that year and were held the event. Softball people realized it is a gem.”

Behymer also gives a lot of credit to McDowell and his leadership.

“Jeremy has a strong knowledge on how to run successful tournaments which is second to none. When we started, most tournaments were doing 70-minute games and we started doing 90-minuge games and teams were looking for that. Everyone is now doing that (the longer games).”

Currently, Top Gun runs 37 events annually and next year it will be 45 in 11 states. The event company employs nine and brings in a lot of help for seasonal events.

McDowell certainly knows how to do sports events… at age 23, he began running a sporting complex and over his career has been a National Director at USSSA among other roles.

Behymer comes from a project manager and was an estimator for an electrical company where he says:

“I learned how to pay attention to details which helps in running so many complex events.”

Today, the Top Gun leads are making an impact from youth softball up through pro softball because they love how the sport changes lives.

“I’m happy with how we’re able to touch lives and the opportunities to pay it forward are insane,” he continues: “We give out four $1,000 scholarship each year which we’ve done for the past five years.”

“A while back, I had a heart attack and the nurse who attended to me was one of the softball players who had won a Top Gun scholarship!”

Isn’t that crazy?”

True, there’s a lot of time, sweat, experience and effort that goes into all of this but it’s worth it. Best of all, Behymer jokes:

“We love doing it and still are rationally sane!”

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Line Drive will have daily recaps of all three events so keep checking back frequently!

To reach us, email: brentt.eads@linedrivemedia.com.