Post-Collegiate Adventures of Syd The Kid

[1972Shocker]

They moved her up in the lineup to the 2 hole, finally! Syd delivered. Batting second is the PERFECT spot for her. She handles the bat so well, has a great eye and her softball IQ is outstanding. Nice game and Happy Birthday Syd.

Bubba knows her softball.

[1972Shocker]

Team Nickles lost to Team Alo this afternoon 5-9.

Syd was 0-3 with a walk. She drops from 5th to 9th on the Player Leaderboard. However, 6 of the players ahead of Syd have played 11 games vs 10 games for Syd. Team Nickles plays in both of the final 2 games of the AUX season on Tuesday so she will have an opportunity to gain some ground on the final day of play.

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

[WstateU]

[SubGod22]

[SubGod22]

[ShockerDropOut]

That's a game saving catch. Runners at second and third in the top of the 7th. Team Nichols scores one in the bottom half to tie it. They get two in the 9th to come back from 5 down in the 5th to win it. It was an exciting game.

[1972Shocker]

In the AUX finale games on Wedesday everning Team Nickles edged Team Mazon in 9 innings. The game was tied at 4-all after 5 innings with Team Mazon getting 4 runs in top of the 2nd to take and early lead and Team Nickles match that in the bottom of the 5th. Team Mazon responded with a 5-run inning in the top of the 6 to regains a big lead at 9-4. Team Nickles got right back in it with 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th and tied it up in the bottom of the 7th with a lead off home run. With the international tiebreaker rules in place both teams scored their free runner from 2nd base in the 8th inning. In the bottom of the 9th Team Mazon plated 2 runs but Team Nickles score 3 to pull out a wild 13-12 win.

In the nightcap and final Aux game Team Nickles took care of Team Alo 8-2 riding a 6-run first inning to the victory.

Syd had her #SCTop10 (#3) defensive play but did not have a great night at the plate. In the 2 games she was 0-7, she was hit by pitch and had 1 RBI and 1 run scored.

Nevertheless, she did move up from 9th to 6th in the final AUX Player Leaderboard.

[WstateU]

[SubGod22]

[SubGod22]

Wichita impressed. Impressed a lot.

Next year, AU Pro will go to 4 teams, play 30 games, and go to multiple cities.

Wichita is promised to be one of those cities.

In 2026, AU Pro wants to go to city based teams and Wichita is promised one of those teams.

I wonder if there will eventually be some sort of connection with AU Pro will ever connect with the other couple of professional leagues.

Currently there's the AFP with four teams (Oklahoma City Spark, New York Rise, Chattanooga Steam, Florida Vibe) and the WPF (Texas) which also has four teams (Texas Smoke (Austin), Coastal Bend Tidal Wave (Corpus Christi), Hub City Adelitas (Lubbock), Texas Monarchs (San Marcos)).

Former Shocker Neleigh Herring played for the Florida Vibe for a couple of years I believe. Can't find her on the roster anymore. Scrolling through her Twitter feed it looks like she was planning to play this season but I'm not sure if she's on a different team or different league or if plans changed. Seems like another Shocker was drafted by the Vibe last year as well, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly.

I'm behind whatever it takes though to help establish some level of legitimacy for professional softball. At some point, having established city located teams seems to be the way you have to end up. If done correctly, it could be a nice way to build. I do wonder if having multiple different leagues is good or bad. I suppose having more regional based teams could help keep costs down, though the AFP isn't exactly regional like the WPF is.

Either way, I hope it works out in the end, if that's 2026 or 2030 or whatever. And having Wichita host a team would be great for the city. It'll be even better when we expand seating a bit and could actually help in pushing funding for renovations/additions for the program.

I look forward to seeing how long it takes to finish what's planned after the indoor facility and new dedicated softball office/facility is done as those are the big expenses.

[1972Shocker]

Next year, AU Pro will go to 4 teams, play 30 games, and go to multiple cities.

Wichita is promised to be one of those cities.

In 2026, AU Pro wants to go to city based teams and Wichita is promised one of those teams.

I did not see where Wichita is promised to be one of the 2026 city based teams. Did I miss that elsewhere?

After such a strong debut showing, Wichita has been promised to be one of the stops in 2025 and is in consideration to host one of the four teams when the AUSL becomes a city-based league in 2026.

Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/sports/colleg...orylink=cpy

[1972Shocker]

Syd the Kid showing off the wheels and how to avoid the tag.

[1972Shocker]