Karlyn Pickens' introduction to professional softball was somewhat accidental.
The former Tennessee star pitcher ended up at a USSSA Pride game with her youth travel softball team near the tournament they were playing in, and it was the first time she'd heard of the National Pro Fastpitch league. There weren't many games on television, and the NPF's Carolina Diamonds, which played a couple of hours from Pickens' hometown of Weaverville, North Carolina, were only in Charlotte for one season before folding.
"I didn't even know they had professional softball," Pickens said in July during her AUSL rookie season with the Carolina Blaze. "It's night and day to see how it came from what it was to what it is now, where it’s just packing out stadiums and seeing
all the viewership."
Pickens’ Blaze teammate and fellow Tennessee alum Aubrey Leach-Gartner, who graduated in 2019, remembers it being unheard of to watch pro softball on television growing up, and the immediate visibility of the AUSL has been one of the biggest differences in its early success.
Game 1 of the AUSL championship on July 25 was on ABC, making it the first-ever pro softball game aired on broadcast television. It averaged 732,000 viewers, ESPN announced, which set a record for a pro softball game.
And that's coming off the most-watched Women's College World Series on record. The WCWS averaged 1.6 million viewers over 16 games, according to ESPN, and featured the most-watched college softball game ever with 2.5 million average viewers for Game 2 of the championship series between Texas and Texas Tech, peaking at 3 million.
"I don't think we were quite ready for how big it was going to get so quickly," Leach-Gartner said. "But I think it's all positive. It's all exciting to see, us hitting some really big number marks so early, just showing the support off the college season . . . I just think softball is gaining the support and traction to be the next big women's professional sport."
Softball is booming, and the AUSL is making sure a professional league is here to stay this time.
AUSL gains momentum with successful second season
Sam Fischer can't quite put it into words. But whenever the AUSL senior director of softball operations was at one of the 75 regular-season games this summer, the feeling she got among the crowds or on the field was different.
Fischer played in multiple professional softball leagues after she graduated from Loyola Marymount in 2012, including the NPF, the Japanese Professional League and all eight AU Pro Softball seasons.
"You can't really state it as a number or a fact, but the energy and the feeling of it, it feels really big," Fischer said in late July. "I got to go to a couple games in Portland just a week or two ago, and the crowds there, I'm like this is it. This is what we've been working for and this is what we've been wanting."
The league's second season, which was the first with six teams in permanent host cities, saw significant increases in key metrics. There were 25 sellouts, including both games of the championship series at Texas A&M's stadium, which is a two-hour drive from the closest AUSL team in Round Rock, Texas.
The AUSL averaged 219,000 viewers this season, up 152% from 2025. On top of that, the league’s social media accounts gained nearly 450,000 followers, and merchandise sales were up 110%. Pickens' merchandise was the top seller in June, and five of the top 10 sellers were rookies.
"It's really cool to see just how far pro softball has come so quickly," said Pickens, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 AUSL Draft. "Coming off of the College World Series, where college softball grew exponentially as well, and seeing that transition into the pro side of things, it's also been very rewarding for us to get to experience that firsthand."
Why AUSL is set up for long-term success
Tennessee softball coach Karen Weekly sat in the stands July 7 in Portland, watching her three former players in the AUSL face off.
The matchup between the Carolina Blaze and Portland Cascade, where former Lady Vols pitcher Payton Gottshall plays, started at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. The stadium was packed.
In an interview during the broadcast, Weekly praised the environment of the league, along with AUSL commissioner Kim Ng's leadership.
"I’m a big AUSL person. There’s one league for me, and it’s AUSL," Weekly said. "I think the best thing we can do in softball is everybody get behind one league, because that’s been a lot of the problem is, dividing our loyalties, dividing our resources, dividing our efforts."
The eight-figure investment from MLB — its first partnership with a professional softball league — "automatically put us on a different level," Leach-Gartner said, and has allowed the AUSL to operate on a truly professional level immediately.
Ng was the first woman to become an MLB general manager, and her credibility played a role in securing the MLB partnership because her name is the "highest possible stamp" of approval, Fischer said.
The AUSL also has a player executive committee, which Leach-Gartner is the chair of, providing a unique opportunity for players' voices to be heard while forming a new league.
It's the reason why players have benefits like massages after cross-country flights or why teams don't travel on game days. The AUSL also hired a full-time strength and conditioning coach for the first time along with a full-time medical staff that players have access to year-round.
Player salaries reflect a league still in its infancy, averaging about $35,000, with opportunities to earn up to $80,000, according to the AUSL. Leach-Gartner said the league is pushing the limits on what it can do right now, but it's also pushing for a future where playing is their only job.
"I want to see our league continue to create opportunities for professional softball to be someone's career," Leach-Gartner said. "That's the goal, is to be able to create a viable option for people to say, 'This is what I want to do when I grow up,' and then go out and chase that dream and have it be sustainable as their career."
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why former Lady Vols softball stars believe AUSL can be next big women's pro sport
