LAS VEGAS — Thursday brought a fitting ending to a year that saw the remarkable debut season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League: Four of the AUSL’s best players were honored at the MLB Awards from the Chelsea Theater in Las Vegas.
“I just think it’s an incredible thrill for all of them,” said Kim Ng, longtime MLB executive and the league’s commissioner. “We’ve really tried to elevate and uplift our athletes, and obviously with MLB’s support and investment throughout the season, for them to integrate our athletes into this programming is just phenomenal. … I’ve been so used to watching baseball — for decades now. And I watch these women, you just develop such an incredible appreciation for what they do.”
The four players were honored during a segment of Thursday’s MLB Awards, in which they were announced one-by-one by MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds and softball icon Jennie Finch, who serves as an AUSL player advisor and an MLB ambassador. A few minutes later, both Coffel and Corrick were brought on stage for an interview with Reynolds, where they recounted the season and their aspirations for the future of the league.
Both Finch and Reynolds touted the success of the league in Year 1 – citing 24 sellouts and a 90% stadium-capacity fill rate. The season included 340 million social media impressions across AUSL and MLB channels and 347,000 viewers tuning in for the championship round.
“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 from the red carpet at the Cosmopolitan before the show. “It’s a super cool way to recap the season.”
Coffel led the league in OPS, slugging percentage and RBIs while leading her team, the Bandits, to an appearance in the championship, where they lost to Corrick’s Talons.
Corrick, who became the first pitcher in the league’s history to pitch a shutout (and did so twice), was 6-0 on the mound, while leading the league in saves, ERA and opponents’ batting average.
“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. “So it’s exciting to be the first step on the long journey.”
Corrick spoke of her excitement to see the growth of the league and building toward the 2028 Olympics. She is from Florida but was born in England and has represented team Great Britain and was recently inducted into the British Softball Hall of Fame. Corrick attended the University of South Florida and still serves as an assistant pitching coach there.
As for Gold, she led Duke to its first Women’s College World Series appearance in 2024 and followed it by winning AUSL Rookie of the Year in 2025 while playing for the Blaze. Gold hit .373 and her five home runs were tied for most by a rookie.
“This is an awesome event,” Gold said. “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.
“I’m super excited for young female athletes to have the dream and have the aspirations to be professional softball players. We started off strong, and we’re going to keep it going that way.”
Flippen, meanwhile, recorded 56 putouts and 38 assists, while committing the fewest errors in the AUSL, en route to Defensive Player of the Year honors as an infielder with the Talons.
“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 AUSL is headed for what figures to be an even bigger Year 2 with the league set to expand from four teams to six. After using a touring model in 2025, the league will move to a city-based format for the 2026 season, with the Oklahoma City Spark — an expansion club — having been named as the first city (with five to follow). The AUSL Draft will take place on Dec. 1.
