2026 AUSL College Draft Results: All 17 Picks Across Four Rounds

The 2026 Athletes Unlimited Softball League College Draft delivered all 17 of the league’s pre-announced Golden Ticket recipients to AUSL rosters across four rounds Monday night on ESPN2, with the Carolina Blaze taking Tennessee right-hander Karlyn Pickens with the No. 1 overall pick.

The draft ran 17 picks deep across six teams, with the two expansion franchises — the Portland Cascade and the Oklahoma City Spark — combining for seven of the 17 selections. Cascade led the field with four picks; Spark added three. The defending-champion Utah Talons and the Texas Volts each took two.

Pitchers went 1-2-3. After Pickens, the Volts selected Texas Tech ace NiJaree Canady at No. 2, and the Spark followed with Belmont’s Maya Johnson at No. 3 — the highest professional draft selection in Belmont University history in any sport. All three are right-handed.

Round 1

The first six picks gave each franchise an opening-round selection.

1. Carolina Blaze — Karlyn Pickens, RHP, Tennessee
2. Texas Volts — NiJaree Canady, RHP, Texas Tech
3. Oklahoma City Spark — Maya Johnson, RHP, Belmont
4. Portland Cascade — Megan Grant, UTL, UCLA
5. Chicago Bandits — Jocelyn Erickson, C, Florida
6. Utah Talons — Jordan Woolery, IF, UCLA

Round 2

Two Texas teammates went back-to-back at picks 7 and 8 — catcher Reese Atwood to the Blaze, infielder Leighann Goode to the Volts. The round closed with two more pitchers off the board.

7. Carolina Blaze — Reese Atwood, C, Texas
8. Texas Volts — Leighann Goode, IF, Texas
9. Portland Cascade — Sydney Stewart, C, Arizona
10. Oklahoma City Spark — Peja Goold, RHP, Mississippi State
11. Chicago Bandits — Taryn Kern, IF, Stanford
12. Utah Talons — Taylor Tinsley, RHP, UCLA

Round 3

The Cascade and Bandits closed positional gaps in Round 3. Oklahoma’s Ailana Agbayani, the 2025 Rawlings Gold Glove second baseman, opened the round with the Bandits.

13. Chicago Bandits — Ailana Agbayani, IF, Oklahoma
14. Oklahoma City Spark — Amari Harper, UTIL, Oregon
15. Portland Cascade — Kenzie Brown, RHP, Arizona State
16. Carolina Blaze — Dakota Kennedy, OF, Arkansas

Round 4

The Cascade closed the draft with the league’s final pick.

17. Portland Cascade — Kenleigh Cahalan, IF, Florida

Team-by-team draft classes

Carolina Blaze (3 picks): Pickens, Atwood, Kennedy. The Blaze paired the league’s most decorated college arm with Texas’s all-time home run leader and a two-time NFCA All-American outfielder.

Texas Volts (2 picks): Canady, Goode. Two SEC-rooted college stars, including a 2024 USA Softball Player of the Year and a 2025 NFCA All-American.

Oklahoma City Spark (3 picks): Johnson, Goold, Harper. The expansion franchise built around three different positional profiles — a national strikeout leader, a two-time SoCon Pitcher of the Year, and a utility bat from Oregon.

Portland Cascade (4 picks): Grant, Stewart, Brown, Cahalan. The other expansion club came away with the deepest draft class of any team — a UCLA utility, an Arizona catcher, a 40.5%-strikeout-rate Arizona State arm, and a Florida infielder.

Chicago Bandits (3 picks): Erickson, Kern, Agbayani. The Bandits stocked positional depth with three middle-of-the-diamond bats.

Utah Talons (2 picks): Woolery, Tinsley. The defending AUSL champions added a UCLA infielder and a UCLA right-hander.

What’s next

Drafted players retain their NCAA eligibility through their college seasons and may sign with their AUSL teams once that eligibility expires. The 2026 AUSL season opens June 9, with games on ESPN and ABC. Commissioner Kim Ng announced each pick on the ESPN2 broadcast.

A full 2026 schedule is available, including the league’s Championship Series in late July at Davis Diamond on the Texas A&M campus, with Game 1 airing on ABC — the first AUSL game ever broadcast on network television.