Sharlize Palacios AUSL All-Star Cup Captain
In a competition where 45 professional players earn points on their own, Sharlize Palacios finished first.
The 2026 AUSL All-Star Cup is not about teams. Instead, it is about individuals.
Forty-five of the best professional softball players in the world earn leaderboard points based solely on their own performance — plate appearances, defensive plays, wins. After each three-game series, the top three players on the leaderboard become captains. They draft entirely new rosters. Then it starts again.
After all, the players who make captain are the ones the game cannot hide, regardless of who is around them.
Sharlize Palacios, catcher for the Utah Talons, is one of those players.
She finished Series 2 of the 2026 All-Star Cup in first place on the individual leaderboard. She got there with a home run over the left-field wall against Team Brown — 40 stat points — and then earned MVP 1 honors in the same game, worth 60 more. When Series 2 ended, 370 total points had her standing alone at the top. Forty-four of the best softball players in the world were below her.
So that made her a captain for Series 3. She drafted her team. “Team Palacios” is the name on the lineup card.
This is the same catcher who helped the Utah Talons win back-to-back AUSL championships in 2025 and 2026. She earned AUSL All-Defensive Team honors in the league’s very first year, played through an injury during the 2026 regular season, and remained the Talons’ anchor behind the plate through all of it. Her path to the top of the All-Star Cup leaderboard was built over two seasons of showing up — of making the hard plays and the quiet calls that only appear in a leaderboard if you actually know what you are looking at.
The All-Star Cup is a meritocracy: there are no teams to hide behind. The catcher who leads that leaderboard is the catcher who controlled the game. Who called the right pitch in the fifth inning. Who blocked in the dirt in the seventh. Who drove the ball over the fence when the score was tight and everyone was watching. That is what catchers do. In fact, that is what Palacios does.
She finished Series 2 in first place. Meanwhile, the All-Star Cup runs through August 30.
That could be you — not this week, not at this level. But in your next tournament, in your next season, in your next bullpen session: practice performing without a system to catch your errors. Call the pitches. Make the blocks. Drive the ball. Find out what you are worth on your own.
Try this at your next practice
Call your own game. Run one complete bullpen session — all your pitcher’s pitches, full count sequences, the whole thing — without a coach calling pitches. Every decision is yours. Afterward, talk through why you called what you called. What did you learn about your pitcher that you didn’t know before?
Solo blocking circuit. Find a machine or a partner throwing balls in the dirt. Do 20 reps in your blocking position — no glove. Focus entirely on your feet and your body angle. Blocking is not about the equipment. It is about the position. Finally, build the position first.
Sources: Movers of AUSL Series 2: Palacios takes top spot (MLB.com) · 2026 All-Star Cup Series 3 Draft Results (AUSL.com) · Everything to know about the 2026 AUSL All-Star Cup (MLB.com) · Where to watch the 2026 AUSL All-Star Cup (ESPN)
