Portland crashes the top tier as Megan Grant catches fire
Three weeks in, the AUSL order keeps shifting: the Cascade have climbed to second behind a red-hot Megan Grant, the Talons' win streak finally snapped, and league viewership just jumped 181% on ESPN.
Three weeks into the AUSL and the standings still won't sit still. An expansion club has bullied its way into second, the defending champs finally lost, and the league's TV numbers are doing something no one predicted. Let's dig in.
Lead Off
The Portland Cascade weren't supposed to be here yet. An expansion team built from the scraps of the allocation draft has quietly won eight of its last ten and climbed into sole possession of second place, behind only the defending-champion Talons — and they own the league's best road record doing it. The engine is Megan Grant, the UCLA slugger nicknamed "The Chef," who set an AUSL distance record in her pro debut a few weeks ago and now leads the league's home-run race with six. This week she was named a 2026 ESPY nominee for Best Record-Breaking Performance, then capped a wild rally in Texas — Portland scored five runs in the seventh, with Grant, Korbe Otis and Kenleigh Cahalan all going deep, to steal a game it had no business winning.
Why it matters: The knock on a six-team league with annual roster reshuffles is that it can't build identity fast enough. Portland is the rebuttal — a first-year club with a homegrown young core and a bona fide star, already chasing the title-holders. Parity isn't just a talking point three weeks in; it's the standings.
By the Numbers
7 — AUSL plays that have already cracked SportsCenter's "Top Ten" this season, three weeks in. For a league in only its second summer, landing on the country's most-watched highlight reel once a week is the kind of cultural footprint that money can't buy. Source · AUSL.
Scoreboard
AUSL week three — last 7 days
| Final | Note |
|---|---|
| Talons 3–1 Blaze at Durham (Fri) | Montana Fouts' fifth complete game ran Utah's streak to seven; the Blaze snapped it Saturday to take the finale |
| Blaze 5–4 Spark (Klingler grand slam) | Down four, Carolina rallies on Baylee Klingler's first-pitch slam to climb to 7–5 |
| Cascade stun Volts (7th-inning rally) | Three homers in the seventh erase a 5–1 hole; Sam Landry closes it as Portland climbs to second |
| Bandits 14–0 Spark (run-rule) | Skylar Wallace went deep twice; Lexi Kilfoyl spun the shutout in Chicago's blowout |
| Volts erupt for 5 HRs in a game (franchise record) | Texas takes back-to-back from Chicago and starts to find its footing |
This week — 5 to watch
| When | What | Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Tue Jun 30 4 PT / 7 ET | Cascade at Bandits in Rosemont | ESPN2 |
| Tue Jun 30 6 PT / 9 ET | Volts at Talons — Utah looks to rebound at home | CBS Sports Net |
| Wed Jul 1 4 PT / 7 ET | Blaze at Spark in OKC — rematch | theausl.com |
| Through Jun 30 | All-Star Cup fan vote closes | theausl.com |
| Aug 8–30 | AUSL All-Star Cup, Rosemont IL | theausl.com |
Three weeks in, five of six teams are still within striking distance — and the league's showcase event is now on the calendar.
Hot Corner
1. AUSL viewership is up 181% on ESPN
The numbers behind the league are as loud as the ones on the field. Through two weeks, the AUSL's average viewership across ESPN platforms is up 181% over the same point last year, and ESPN has already bumped several games to bigger platforms. The June 21 Spark–Cascade game drew 404,000 viewers — a new single-game record for the league. A year after MLB made its first investment in a women's pro league, the bet is paying off in the one currency that matters to broadcasters. AUSL →
2. Pro softball's Durham weekend ends in a split
The AUSL Signature Series delivered exactly the marquee weekend a second-year league wanted at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Montana Fouts spun a 3–1 complete game on Friday — her fifth of the year and a league-best five wins — to stretch Utah's winning streak to seven. But the Blaze struck back in Saturday's finale to end it, handing the league's deepest team its first reminder that it isn't untouchable. The Talons still sit comfortably atop the table. AUSL →
3. The Texas Volts' bats finally wake up
After an 0–6 start that buried them last week, the Texas Volts — fronted by the sport's two biggest arms in NiJaree Canady and Rachel Garcia — showed life, smashing a franchise-record five home runs in a single game and taking back-to-back from Chicago. The bats giveth and the bats taketh away: in between, Skylar Wallace's two-homer day backed a 14–0 Bandits run-rule of OKC. Three weeks in, the offense is the story across the league. AUSL →
4. Portland's Florida pipeline is feeding the future
The Cascade's surge isn't just Megan Grant. Former Florida Gators Korbe Otis and Kendra Falby have become the heartbeat of Portland's young offense, reuniting a college outfield in the pros and supplying the speed-and-pop combination behind that eight-of-ten run. Otis was one of the three seventh-inning home runs that sank Texas. For an expansion roster, building around two players who already know how to win together is a quiet competitive edge. AUSL →
5. The All-Star Cup ballot closes Tuesday
Fans have until June 30 to lock players into the 2026 AUSL All-Star Cup, the league's August showcase in Rosemont, Illinois. The top vote-getters earn automatic invitations, and the early board reads like a who's-who: Karlyn Pickens, Montana Fouts and Sam Landry in the pitching race, with Maya Brady and Megan Grant battling for the hitters' spots. It's a clever way to let the audience that's fueling the viewership boom pick the names they want to see. AUSL →
From the Dugout
Podcast pick · The Car Ride Home (Alliance Fastpitch). With the college game dark and the travel circuit in full swing, Jami Lobpries' show is the right summer listen — intimate conversations with coaches, innovators and athletes from the youth ranks up to the pros, fresh every Friday. Takeaway: summer is when development actually happens, so use the windshield time to talk through one mental-game habit with your player — a pre-pitch routine, a reset breath — rather than re-coaching mechanics in the car. Listen →
Clip of the week: @elitepitchingdfw_jbrooks — former D1/D2/JUCO pitching coach Jenna Brooks posts clean, no-nonsense circle work out of DFW, and her recent breakdowns on staying tall through release (resisting the urge to collapse onto the front side) are a tidy fix worth saving before your pitcher's next bullpen.
Worth a read: The college transfer window has closed, but the dominoes keep falling — 112 new commits in a single week, the Zache sisters from Oklahoma to Michigan, and LSU's Tori Edwards landing at Florida. On3's 2026–27 transfer portal tracker is still the cleanest way to follow who's landing where.
Play of the Week
Jalia Lassiter says "not today" with a diving robbery
In a week stuffed with home runs, the prettiest moment was a defensive one. Jalia Lassiter ranged into the gap and laid out full-extension to steal a hit that looked certain off the bat — the kind of read-jump-and-go play that turns a rally into a sigh. The league's own account filed it under the universal softball verdict: "No, no, no — not today." Replay it twice and you'll still wonder how she got there.
Source: @theauslofficial · Watch the full clip →