Jocelyn Erickson’s Road to the AUSL Championship on ABC
No left-handed-throwing catcher had held a prominent place in professional softball in more than three decades. Then the Chicago Bandits picked Jocelyn Erickson fifth overall in the 2026 AUSL College Draft. Now she is eight weeks out of college and starting Game 1 of the AUSL Championship Series on ABC.
Building the résumé
Left-handed catchers are rare for a reason. The throw to third base — the hardest play for a catcher — goes across the batter’s body when you throw with your left hand. So most coaches steer lefties away from the position. Erickson went the other way.
She played catcher at Oklahoma. Then she transferred to Florida. At both schools she won a Rawlings Gold Glove Award from the NFCA. In her Gold Glove sophomore season at Oklahoma, she posted a .997 fielding percentage. That number says she made one error for every 333 chances.
Her college career, across both programs, looked like this:
| Stat | Total |
|---|---|
| AVG | .360 |
| HR | 58 |
| RBI | 251 |
| Games started | 228 |
| Games played | 255 |
She started 228 of 255 games. That is a player coaches trust. She finished her senior season at Florida with 19 home runs and 67 RBI. The NFCA named her Division I Player of the Year. She was also first-team All-SEC.
So when the 2026 AUSL College Draft arrived, teams knew exactly what they were getting. Chicago took her No. 5 overall. MLB.com ran a feature calling her the first prominent left-handed-throwing catcher in AUSL history.
The season begins
Erickson signed her rookie contract on May 29. She rejoined former Florida teammate Skylar Wallace on the Bandits roster, which made the transition a little easier.
Still, the professional game is faster. Her first 19 AUSL starts produced a .245 average and a .740 OPS. Those are modest numbers, but she was finding her footing.
Then, on July 12, she went 2-for-3 against Portland Cascade. She hit her first AUSL career home run and drove in two runs. That game showed what the Bandits knew when they drafted her.
Chicago finished the regular season 17-9. But Utah went one game better and claimed the No. 1 seed. The Bandits were No. 2, which meant their playoff road would not be easy.
One game to get through
Because the Bandits finished second, they had to play a play-in game. The opponent: No. 3 Portland Cascade, the same team Erickson had homered against in July. The game was July 23 at Davis Diamond in College Station, Texas, starting at 9 PM ET on ESPN.
Portland pushed the game to extra innings. The AUSL places a runner at second base to open each half-inning in extras. After ten innings the teams were tied. The Bandits needed the game to end.
In the 11th, Erickson started at second base as the automatic runner. Mary Iakopo laid down a sacrifice bunt. As a result, Erickson moved to third. Then Taryn Kern hit a double into the gap. Erickson scored and the game was tied 5-5.
While the diamond held its breath, Ailana Agbayani singled down the first-base line. Kern scored. Bandits 6, Cascade 5.
The final was 6-5 in 11 innings. Erickson was on base for the tying run. She scored it.
The championship
Next up: the Utah Talons, defending champions. Utah went 4-1 against Chicago in the regular season. Their ace, Montana Fouts, threw two complete-game wins against the Bandits this year. Her ERA in those outings was 1.19.
Utah’s catcher is Sharlize Palacios. In 2026 she is hitting .326 with a .900 OPS. She earned AUSL All-Defensive Team honors in 2025. For Erickson, the championship series is also a showcase matchup between the two best catchers in the league.
Game 1 aired July 25 at 1 PM ET on ABC. That is the first time a professional softball game has ever been on a major American broadcast network. Meanwhile, Erickson is eight weeks removed from her last college at-bat.
What a catcher can learn from this
Erickson did not change her throwing hand. She did not move to a different position. Instead, she put in the work to be elite at the hardest version of catcher there is.
Two Gold Gloves and a .997 fielding percentage do not happen because of talent alone. They happen because of repetition behind the plate, day after day. When the draft came, every team knew her name.
You do not have to be a natural fit for a position to become the best at it. You have to outwork the conventional wisdom. Sweat the gear. Never fear. That could be you.
