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UCLA softball shortstop Maya Brady has committed to playing in the new Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), ESPN reported.
Adding a player of Brady’s caliber and star power is expected to provide a boost to the upstart league that will conduct its inaugural draft this week.
The 23-year-old is the niece of seven-time Super Bowl winner and current FOX Sports lead NFL analyst Tom Brady.
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The left-handed UCLA Bruin also plays in the outfield and has received first-team All-American honors twice. Brady was also previously named the Pac-12 Player of the Year and was the Softball America Freshman of the Year in 2020.
UCLA has long boasted one of the top softball programs in the nation, and Brady ranks second on the school’s all-time home run list.
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Former Miami Marlins general manager Kim Ng is spearheading AUSL and was named a senior advisor last year. Ng has said the league will be “Major League Baseball for softball.”
The league will feature four teams playing 30 games in six to eight cities in its first season.
The Bandits, Blaze, Volts and Talons will be the league’s original four teams.
“Softball is poised for tremendous growth at the professional level, and the AUSL is meeting the moment by creating the action-packed, world-class softball league that this sport has deserved for so long,” Ng said.
“The caliber of players vying to be drafted tomorrow — Olympians, Team USA veterans, All-Americans and NCAA champions — further exemplifies that the world’s best players are here together as a unit of founding members who will make the AUSL the next big thing in women’s sports.”
Brady hit 71 home runs with 246 RBIs in 249 games at UCLA.
Last summer, two different four-team softball leagues held games, Women’s Professional Fastpitch and Association of Fastpitch Professionals.
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