Bandits Infielder Erin Coffel Named Inaugural 2025 AUSL Most Valuable Player

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Chicago Bandits infielder Erin Coffel was named the inaugural Athletes Unlimited Softball League Most Valuable Player on July 26, 2025, accepting the award on the field at Rhoads Stadium before Game 1 of the 2025 AUSL Championship presented by Sephora on ESPN.

Coffel had already won the league’s Hitter of the Year award earlier that week, and the MVP vote — cast by the AUSL’s Player Executive Committee, advisors, general managers, coaches, broadcast team, and credentialed press — followed the same logic her stats had been writing all season.

The Numbers

Across 23 regular-season games for the Bandits, Coffel hit .410 (25-for-61) with five home runs, five doubles, and a league-best four triples. Her 28 RBI also led the league outright. So did her .869 slugging percentage, her .566 on-base percentage, and her 13 hit-by-pitches — the fourth statistical category in which she finished first.

The composite OPS of 1.435 was the highest in the AUSL, and the gap between Coffel and the next-best hitter was wide enough that the Hitter of the Year vote earlier in the week was nearly redundant by the time the MVP ballots came in.

Coffel’s production carried the Bandits to a 15-9 regular-season record and a second-place finish, earning Chicago the second seed in the inaugural Utah Talons-Bandits championship series at Rhoads Stadium July 26-28.

From Lexington to the Pros

Coffel arrived in the AUSL as a known quantity. She spent four years at Kentucky from 2021 to 2024, leaving Lexington as the program’s all-time leader in home runs, RBI, and walks. After her playing eligibility ended she joined the Florida softball staff as a graduate manager while pursuing a master’s degree, the kind of post-eligibility role that keeps a player inside the sport without committing fully to coaching.

The bridge from college star to professional standout is usually messy. For Coffel it was a step over, not a leap. The plate discipline that defined her at Kentucky — bat speed, pitch recognition, and a willingness to wear a baseball to take a base — carried over without translation.

The First MVP, and What Comes After

The 2025 AUSL was the league’s first year of city-based competition, fielding four franchises — the Bandits, the Carolina Blaze, the Texas Volts, and the Utah Talons — in a 24-game regular season. Every player on every roster was part of something new. Coffel’s name is the one that ends up in the league’s record books first.

The 2026 AUSL season opens June 9 with an expanded six-team field, adding the OKC Spark and Portland Cascade. The 2026 AUSL College Draft airs May 4 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 under Commissioner Kim Ng. The Bandits return as a charter franchise; Coffel returns as the player every other team in the league has to plan around.