The second season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) kicked off last night as the six city-based teams competing in a traditional 24-game schedule— the Chicago Bandits, Carolina Blaze, Portland Cascade, Oklahoma City Spark, Utah Talons and Texas Volts—took the field.

For those keeping score, the trio of season-starting games went as follows (recaps courtesy of theausl.com):

Blaze 4, Cascade 1

The Carolina Blaze (1-0) scored four unanswered runs to earn a 4-1 victory over the Portland Cascade (0-1) to open the 2026 Athletes Unlimited Softball League regular season at Smith Family Stadium on Tuesday evening.

After allowing a run in the third inning, Carolina plated four runs across the fourth and fifth innings. Pitcher Aleshia Ocasio put the Blaze on the board with an RBI single up the middle. Infielder Aubrey Leach raked in two runs on a single to complete a three-run outburst in the fourth inning. Utility player Devyn Netz nailed the exclamation mark with the first home run of the season to increase the lead to 4-1. The Blaze maintained the advantage behind the strong effort in relief by pitcher Keilani Ricketts, who earned the save.

Spark 13, Volts 5

The Oklahoma City Spark (1-0) erupted for four home runs and used three big scoring innings to surge past the Texas Volts (0-1) for a 13-5 Athletes Unlimited Softball League victory in the season opener for both teams at Tom Heath Field on Tuesday evening.

Oklahoma City took advantage of two home runs and two Texas errors to plate six runs in the second inning. After Grace Jenkins drew a bases-loaded walk to open the scoring, Maya Brady blasted a grand slam to center field for a 5-0 advantage. Sydney Romero added a solo shot to increase the margin to 6-0.

Talons 5, Bandits 2

Infielder Bri Ellis had a career day with a home run, double and three RBI, while pitcher Montana Fouts pitched a complete game, pitching six consecutive scoreless innings in the Utah Talons’ (1-0) 5-2 Opening Day victory at Dumke Family Softball Stadium on Tuesday night.

Trailing by two in the bottom of the second, Ellis launched a two-run home run to tie the game at 2-apiece. The Talons went ahead for good in the third inning after plating a run on a three-base throwing error before adding an additional insurance run off a sacrifice fly by outfielder Jayda Coleman. Chicago loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fourth, but Fouts escaped the inning by forcing three infield fielder’s choices.

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Twenty-nine members of the U.S. Women’s National Team (WNT) Athlete Pool are competing in the 2026 Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) season.

The list of 29 standouts features five members of Team USA’s silver medal-winning squad from the 2020 Olympic Games — Ally Carda, Rachel Garcia, Bubba Nickles-Camarena, Dejah Mulipola and Kelsey Stewart-Hunter.

Also competing are 12 members of the 2025 World Games roster and 16 athletes who represented the Red, White and Blue during the 2025 USA Down Under Series.

Here, listed by team name and with players’ last names sorted alphabetically, are these best of the best:

Leading the way among AUSL teams, the Carolina Blaze roster includes eight members of the WNT Athlete Pool.

The Utah Talons feature six Eagles, followed by the Chicago Bandits and Texas Volts with five, the Oklahoma City Spark with three and the Portland Cascade with two.

The 2026 AUSL season will showcase 96 athletes, with ESPN set to exclusively broadcast 50 games across its platforms. MLB Network, MLB.TV and CBS Sports Network will carry the remaining regular-season contests.

Click HERE to see the complete 2026 AUSL broadcast schedule