Pro Softball's First Gold Glove Belongs to Sydney Romero
Rawlings makes history in the AUSL, Team Klingler sweeps into every Series 3 captain seat, and Jordan Woolery takes over Truist Park.
Pro Softball's First Gold Glove Belongs to Sydney Romero
The trophies keep coming this August — and one of them was 69 years in the making.
Lead Off
Rawlings announced Sunday that Sydney Romero of the Oklahoma City Spark is the winner of the first-ever Rawlings Gold Glove Award in the AUSL — the same trophy that has defined defensive excellence in Major League Baseball since 1957 and reached collegiate softball in 2022. Romero anchored the Spark infield at shortstop all season, leading every AUSL shortstop with 45 assists, five double plays and a .974 fielding percentage. She beat out fellow finalists Jadelyn Allchin (Utah Talons) and Alyssa Brito (Carolina Blaze) in voting by each team's general manager, head coach and associate head coach.
Why it matters: Defense rarely gets the hardware, and pro softball has never had an institution like this one stamp its glovework. When the company that has handed Gold Gloves to Willie Mays and Ozzie Smith extends the award to the AUSL, it's another marker that this league is being built to last. Full announcement →
By the Numbers
69 — years between the first Rawlings Gold Glove Award in Major League Baseball (1957) and the first one ever awarded in professional softball, which went to Sydney Romero on Sunday. Source · Rawlings / AUSL
Scoreboard
Last 7 days — sweeps, swing-offs and a salvage job
| Final | Note |
|---|---|
| Team Klingler 1–0 Team Ricketts (All-Star Cup) | Sam Landry and Lexi Kilfoyl tag-teamed a shutout. |
| Team Klingler 2–1 Team Brown (All-Star Cup) | Sharlize Palacios' early two-run blast held up. |
| Team Ricketts 4–2 Team Brown (All-Star Cup) | A four-run fourth, sparked by Sami Williams' triple. |
| Team Pillar wins MLBx: Atlanta (Truist Park) | Woolery's squad sealed it in the final swing-off. |
This week — 5 to watch
| When | What | Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Fri Aug 21 | All-Star Cup Series 3 opens: Teams Palacios, Klingler and Landry, 7 p.m. ET | Rosemont, Ill. |
| All week | Georgia preps open the "Road to Columbus" fall season | Line Drive Media |
| Sun Aug 30 | All-Star Cup finale; the individual champion is crowned | ESPN / MLBN / CBSSN |
| Tue Sept 1 | College coaches can finally contact the Class of 2028 | Recruiting trail |
| Sat Sept 26 | Nebraska opens fall ball with a doubleheader vs. Kansas | Lincoln, Neb. |
The pros are still keeping score in Rosemont — and the amateur calendar just flipped to fall.
Hot Corner
1. Team Klingler sweeps Series 2 — and every captain seat
Baylee Klingler's squad went 2–0 in the All-Star Cup's second series in Rosemont: Sam Landry and Lexi Kilfoyl combined on a 1–0 shutout of Team Ricketts on Friday, and Sharlize Palacios' early two-run homer beat Team Brown 2–1 on Saturday. The reward for all those win points: the entire top of the leaderboard is now Team Klingler, so Palacios, Klingler and Landry will captain the three new rosters when Series 3 opens Friday. Source →
2. Woolery and Team Pillar take the inaugural MLBx: Atlanta
Braves Alumni Weekend got a softball takeover Saturday: four three-player teams — each pairing a Braves alum with an AUSL star and a Georgia or Georgia Tech college player — battled through timed, defended at-bats in two semifinal rounds and a swing-off final at Truist Park. Utah Talons slugger Jordan Woolery and Team Pillar took the trophy — Georgia Tech's Ryan Zuckerman sealed it with a last-second swing-off homer — with Megan Grant, Bri Ellis and Sydney Romero also swinging in front of a big-league crowd. Source →
3. The coaching carousel raids the pro ranks
The week's transaction wire read like an AUSL roster: Gold Glove finalist Alyssa Brito joined UNC Wilmington's staff, Volts walk-off hero Jackie Lis landed at UNC Greensboro, Kelsey Aikey signed on at Northern Iowa, and Ellie Sieler joined UConn — while Samford made the week's biggest head-coaching move, handing its program to 700-win veteran Tyra Perry after her 11 seasons at Illinois. College dugouts are stocking up on people who were playing or coaching meaningful innings a month ago. Source →
4. 250 more verbals land with Sept. 1 looming
Line Drive Media logged more than 250 new verbal commitments over the past week — calling it its biggest recruiting week of the year — with Indiana, Louisiana-Lafayette, Michigan State and Missouri among the destinations, plus New Jersey All-State pitcher Charlotte Yarnall (13–2, 154 strikeouts in 82.2 innings) to UConn. The pace won't slow: coaches can start contacting the Class of 2028 on Sept. 1. Source →
5. The 2028 HOT 100 machine spins up
Nominations for Line Drive's 2028 HOT 100 closed Monday night, and the countdown starts fast: 10 names a day, every weekday, from No. 100 on Monday, Aug. 24 down to No. 1 on Friday, Sept. 4. With the Sept. 1 contact date opening that same week, the sport's next recruiting class gets ranked and reachable almost simultaneously. Beverly Bandits ace Sophia Schlader headlines the "franchise-type" names to watch. Source →
From the Dugout
Podcast pick: In the Circle (D1Softball, Aug. 17) — "McCatching Up with McQuillin." New Utah assistant Taylor McQuillin walks through her playing career, coaching under Mike Candrea's influence, and what her AUSL summers taught her about the pro game. Takeaway: a playing résumé opens the coaching door, but it's the habits you steal from every coach you've played for that keep you in the room. Listen →
Clip of the week: @jen_schro — Jen Schroeder, the sport's leading catching voice and a Packaged Deal co-founder, breaks receiving and blocking into short, repeatable reps — the right watch in a week when a shortstop's glove made history.
Play of the Week
Hitter of the Year clears the bases and the leaderboard
Team Ricketts was winless in Series 2 and trailing Sunday night when Sami Williams — the reigning AUSL Hitter of the Year — emptied the bases with a fourth-inning triple. It flipped the game into a four-run inning, locked up 40 inning-win points, and held up in a 4–2 win over Team Brown that salvaged the series' final leaderboard shuffle. Williams took MVP 1 honors for the night. Some titles you just keep re-earning.
Source: @theauslofficial · Watch the full clip →
Softball Source — created to highlight the biggest stories in softball for players, coaches, parents, and fans. Reply to this email with feedback.