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#6 - Bella Dayton - OF - Bandits (2025-Present)

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From AUSL website:

Launching in June 2025, the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) is a professional women’s softball league featuring four teams playing a 24-game season in a traditional format. It creates a new opportunity for the world’s best professional softball players to compete.

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For those of you who have been following this project for a while, you might know that I once worked for the Chicago Bandits, part of the now-defunct National Pro Fastpitch league. When the NPF folded, it was genuinely heartbreaking... I loved my time with that team and the community around it.

That’s why it meant so much to me to see the Bandits take the field again this past Saturday. While they’re now part of a different organization, I’m encouraged by what Athletes Unlimited is building. Their model feels built to last, which gives me real hope for the future of professional softball.

It’s hard to put into words how special it is to see my old team back and to feel like the sport I care so deeply about is finally getting the foundation it deserves.

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Saturday, May 24, 2025 - Karlyn Pickens struck out 11 in a complete-game win to keep Tennessee Softball alive in super regionals. In the first inning, Pickens reached 79.4 mph to break her own record for fastest softball pitch ever thrown.

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🙀 NiJaree Canady is amazing, she’s absolutely dominating out there! 🥎

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The American Girls Softball League began play 80 years ago today. Based in the New York Metropolitan area, the circuit featured powerhouse teams such as the Linden Arians and the Greenwold/Long Island Jewels (later known as the Arthur Murray Girls). The AGSL stands apart from its contemporaries because it was integrated from the very beginning.

In previous posts, I noted that Yvonne Coker was the first Black woman to play in the league. However, new research reveals that she was actually the second African American woman to join the AGSL.

Marie Roach of Flatbush, Brooklyn, began the 1945 season with the Greenwold/Long Island Jewels. A sophomore at New York’s Hunter College, she had only started playing softball in 1944, but quickly earned a spot as the starting shortfielder for the Jewels in the AGSL’s inaugural season.

By all accounts, Marie played only one season in the league, but her place in history should not be forgotten. Although Yvonne Coker may not have been the first Black player in 1945, she made history as the first African American woman to play in a major women’s baseball league when the AGSL transitioned to the sport in 1949.

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Can’t get enough of the National Girls Baseball League? Swing by our Instagram for more fun posts!

https://www.instagram.com/ngbldocumentary?igsh=MTZ6ZnZwaHJzZmI5dA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

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Happy National Girls Baseball League (NGBL) Day! 81 years ago today, the National Girls’ Softball League, Inc. of Chicago was officially granted a state not-for-profit charter, paving the way for one of the most influential women’s sports leagues in American history. The circuit showcased some of the finest softball talent of its era. In 1946, it was renamed the National Girls Baseball League, but throughout its 11-season run, it remained true to its roots, continuing to play fastpitch softball.

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Had a great time speaking with F. Flobo Boyce for his podcast!

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Monday, March 24, 2025 - Tennessee's Karlyn Pickens set the record for the fastest pitch ever thrown in NCAA softball history. The junior pitcher also set the record for the fastest pitch ever recorded in women's softball history. In a 3-2 win over Arkansas, Pickens delivered a 78.2 mph pitch in the sixth inning.

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Northwest Girls' Softball (NGS or NWGS) is the next league we are spotlighting for Women's History Month. Formed in 1945 and lasting for one season, the NGS featured six top amateur teams from the Pacific Northwest. The circuit consisted of two ballclubs from Portland (Lind-Pomeroy Florists & Tonseth Florists), two from Seattle (Boeing Bomberettes & Napier-Scott), & two from Vancouver (Vancouver Lions & Vancouver Maple Leafs). Stars of the league were Pat Carson, Norma Eby, Betty Evans, Alyce Johnson, & Dottie Moore, all members of the multi-time national champion Lind-Pomeroy Florists. After succesful careers as amateurs, all five ladies would later turn professional with the Chicago based National Girls Baseball League (NGBL). The NGS disbanded after the 1945 season when Lind-Pomeroy joined the Western Girls Major Softball League in 1946.

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The next softball league we'd like to spotlight for Women's History Month is the 1942 International Girls Major Softball League (IGMSL).

The IGMSL is significant because it was the first national women's softball league.

The organization was formed by the Amateur Softball Association, and featured all of the state and major championship women's teams of the ASA.

Ballclubs came from Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville, New Orleans, New York, Peoria, Phoenix, St. Louis, Tulsa, and several from Canada.

Some of the stars of the league were pitchers Margaret "Sonny" Berger, Lottie Jackson, Nina "Tiger" Korgan, & Mary Skorich, plus infielders Ann Harnett, Freda Savona, & Olympia Savona.

The IGMSL was a succes, but it only lasted one season.

The All-American Girls Softball League was formed in 1943, and allowed ballplayers the opportunity to turn professional.

Many of the International League stars jumped at the chance to join the new circuit which crippled a lot of the teams of the IGMSL...

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Thursday, February 20, 2025 - Karlyn Pickens tied the fastest pitch ever thrown at 77 mph, a record set by legendary Tennessee softball pitcher Monica Abbott during a National Pro Fastpitch game in 2012.

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For Women's History Month, we are shedding some light on women's softball leagues and teams who, like the National Girls Baseball League, were forgotten in time.

We start with the Metropolitan Girls' Major Softball League (MGMSL) of Chicago, which began in the mid 1930s and ended a decade later in the mid 1940s. The organization was created to consolidate all of the best women's teams in the Chicagoland area under one roof. The elevated level of play ensured that Chicago teams saw continued success at the World Amateur Tournament. Although a good majority of the players were local, teams recruited from all over the Unted States and Canada to fill rosters with the best available talent.

The league was also progressive in that it featured not one, but two all-Black female ballclubs, the Bamboo Isles and Gary (IN) Jacks softball teams. Both were at the top of the standings at a time when Chicago area teams dominated the sport nationally. The Metropolitan Softball League would later fuel the All-American Girls Softball/Baseball League and the National Girls Softball/Baseball League with players, teams, and owners.

One such person who came from the Metropolitan League was Emery Parichy, sponsor and later owner of the Bloomer Girls team in Forest Park. He later helped found the National Girls Baseball League in 1944. A few online publications have stated that he owned the Metropolitan League. Those claims are false. Parichy ran a team in the league (Bloomer Girls) and was later a figurehead in the Metropolitan League front office, but he never outright owned the league. After he turned the Bloomers team professional with the NGBL, he later filed an injunction to keep the Metro League from poaching contracted players.

The MGMSL finally closed it's doors in 1945 when the Rock-Ola Music Maids, the last successful amateur club in the circuit, turned professional by joining the National Girls Baseball League…

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On the final day of Black History Month we'd like to honor softball pitcher Ethel "Miss Satchel Paige" Ramsey.

Ethel, from Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, had a record of 72 wins & 3 losses in 1949 with the British Columbia champion Penticton Rexalls.

She turned pro the following year with the barnstorming Chicago Harlem Queens and won 45 games with 7 no hitters.

In 1951 she returned to the amateur ranks to play for a Vancouver ballclub called Nut House whom she led to the BC Senior women's championship.

She joined the Perkins Oilers, another Vancouver team in 1952.

She played for a team called Kerrisdale for two seasons before joining the male barnstorming team the Iowa Colored Ghosts, as one of three female ballplayers on the team, in 1955.

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"Modern Women and Sports in Interwar Chicago: 1918-1941" is the latest book by our good friend Robert Pruter. It features biographies of several Chicago area athletes including a few National Girls Baseball League players. Get your copy at the link below: https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/6633/modern-women-and-sports-in-interwar-chicago/