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Out of Left Field

Out of Left Field

De : Abby Alonzo
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Welcome to Out of Left Field (OLF) — a new media platform dedicated to growing the game of softball through interviews, stories and coverage.

🎙️ Player-first interviews that give athletes the mic.
🎬 Mic’d up highlightd bringing you inside the action.
🥎 Softball storytelling you won’t find anywhere else.
⚡ Bold takes + explainers that break the box and keep you in the game.

From the Athletes Unlimited Softball League to the next wave of women’s sports like flag football, OLF is here to capture the moments, amplify the voices, and bring fans closer to the stories that matter.

📲 Subscribe for new videos every week.
📧 Business inquiries: outofleftfieldmedia@gmail.com
🌐 Follow us on:
Instagram: @OLFmedia
TikTok: @outofleftfieldmediaCopyright Abby Alonzo
Épisodes
  • Maya Johnson Opens Up on Chemo, Loyalty, NIL & What It Actually Took to Get to the AUSL

    Maya Johnson Opens Up on Chemo, Loyalty, NIL & What It Actually Took to Get to the AUSL
    May 28 2026
    She was told she couldn't play college softball — twice. She went through 10 rounds of chemotherapy this fall. Then she threw a perfect game 21 days after her last infusion, went 21-1 with a 0.57 ERA, and was drafted 3rd overall by the Oklahoma City Spark — becoming the first mid-major player in AUSL history to receive a Golden Ticket.Maya Johnson (Belmont University) sits down with Abby Alonzo on Out of Left Field for her most personal interview yet.In this episode:- How Maya was medically disqualified at Pitt and told she'd never play — then heard the same thing at Bowling Green- What it was like going through chemotherapy for lupus while still training three to four days a week- Why she turned down $380,000 in NIL money to stay at Belmont- The moment she almost quit chemo — and what stopped her- The Jessica Mendoza golden ticket surprise and what she actually said when she walked out- Her identity outside of softball, working in the pediatric cardiac ICU, and why she chose nursing- Advice for young athletes on recruiting, the transfer portal, and when to follow your heart over the money- What it means to be the first mid-major player drafted in AUSL history — and what she wants that to say to the next generation━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT MAYA JOHNSON━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Maya Johnson is a redshirt senior left-handed pitcher from Columbia Station, Ohio. A four-year starter at Belmont University, she is a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year, two-time NFCA First Team All-American, and the NCAA's active career strikeout leader. In 2026 she led Division I in ERA (0.57), strikeouts (381), shutouts (14), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (11.91). She was selected 3rd overall by the Oklahoma City Spark in the 2026 AUSL College Draft — the first mid-major player in league history to receive a Golden Ticket. She is also pursuing a doctorate in nursing.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━0:00 – Intro & Welcome0:37 – Season ending at the Tuscaloosa Regional — how she's processing it1:35 – Maya tells her full story: Pitt, Bowling Green, finding Belmont4:15 – Being medically disqualified twice and refusing to accept it5:53 – How she found Belmont and committed less than a month before school started7:21 – The transfer portal this offseason — why she almost left again9:38 – Seeing the Instagram ad for Belmont's hybrid doctoral program and pulling out of the portal11:30 – The lupus flare, 10 rounds of chemo, and training through it12:57 – Abby shares her own experience with her dad's lymphoma and chemo14:01 – What softball gave her during chemotherapy — community, purpose, and a reason to keep going16:17 – Writing handwritten letters to every teammate at the end of the season17:28 – How rejection made her better and what her parents instilled in her18:53 – The loyalty to Belmont and turning down $380K in NIL20:39 – What coaches said in the portal that made her cry and realize she needed to go back22:28 – Advice for young athletes on recruiting and the transfer portal25:32 – The importance of identity outside of softball and the illness narrative27:24 – Why she chose nursing and the nurses who changed her life during her diagnosis28:11 – Her tattoo: "If you can't see the sunshine, be the sunshine"29:13 – What it means to be the first mid-major AUSL draft pick and growing the game31:32 – Fear as a lie and the gut feeling she still gets before medical clearance calls34:21 – Work ethic, intentionality, and what she'd tell a 12-year-old36:42 – Fighting competitively as a kid and winning a bronze medal at the world championships38:49 – What she's most proud of in her entire journey39:18 – What 15-year-old Maya would say looking at where she is now40:11 – Outro━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT OUT OF LEFT FIELD━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Out of Left Field is a softball and baseball media podcast hosted by Abby Alonzo. We go beyond the highlight reel — real conversations with real athletes about the journey, the grind, and everything the box score doesn't show. New episodes dropping regularly.📲 Follow Out of Left Field:Instagram: @olfmediaTikTok: @outofleftfieldmediaYouTube: @outofleftfieldmedia📲 Follow Abby:Instagram: @abbigailalonzoTikTok: @abbyalonz0📲 Follow Maya:Instagram: @johnson_maya━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#OutOfLeftField #MayaJohnson #Softball #AUSL #CollegeSoftball ...
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    41 min
  • Dallas Escobedo Magee on Winning a Natty as a Freshman, Representing Mexico, the Tokyo Olympics & Betting on the AUSL | Out of Left Field

    Dallas Escobedo Magee on Winning a Natty as a Freshman, Representing Mexico, the Tokyo Olympics & Betting on the AUSL | Out of Left Field
    May 21 2026
    Dallas Escobedo Magee joins Out of Left Field for a full career deep dive — from winning a national championship as an ASU freshman, to switching flags and representing Team Mexico, to throwing the qualifying pitch that sent Mexico to the Olympics for the first time in history, to seven seasons in Japan, to pitching in Times Square as part of the 2026 AUSL launch. This one goes deep. 🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:
    • How Dallas fell in love with softball in Glendale, Arizona — and why pitching found her at age 9
    • What it was like to win a national championship as a college freshman at Arizona State
    • The real story behind switching from Team USA to representing Team Mexico
    • Throwing the pitch that qualified Mexico for their first-ever Olympic softball appearance
    • Losing her grandfather two days before her Olympic debut — and taking the mound anyway
    • What 7 seasons of pro softball in Japan taught her about the game, discipline, and life
    • How her master's degree in autism and behavior analysis shapes her coaching approach
    • Why she left Japan and bet on the AUSL — and what it felt like to pitch in Times Square
    • Her message to the 18-year-old girl stepping into her college career: don't put a ceiling on yourself
    ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
    • 0:00 — Intro & welcome
    • 0:28 — Dallas introduces herself: NPF, Japan, AUSL
    • 1:18 — The origin story: Glendale, Arizona, and falling in love with softball
    • 2:28 — How pitching found her at age 9
    • 3:07 — Going to Arizona State and winning a national championship as a freshman
    • 4:20 — What winning a Natty in year one does to the rest of your college career
    • 5:21 — Her relationship with pressure — and what "being prepared" actually means
    • 7:01 — Advice for young pitchers on preparation and the bullpen
    • 8:39 — Playing for Team USA juniors, then making the decision to represent Mexico
    • 10:24 — Mexico reaches out, her first tournament, and the moment she was hooked
    • 11:36 — On pivoting gracefully when things don't go your way
    • 13:07 — Throwing the qualifying pitch that sent Mexico to the Tokyo Olympics
    • 14:20 — Losing her Tata two days before her Olympic debut
    • 15:48 — What she thinks her grandfather would have said watching her pitch
    • 16:43 — The decision to play pro softball in Japan — seven seasons with Toyota Shoki
    • 19:44 — How her husband Chris made it work across time zones and visa windows
    • 21:01 — What Japan taught her about respect for the game
    • 23:26 — Getting a master's degree in autism and behavior analysis while playing overseas
    • 25:16 — How special education training translates directly to coaching
    • 28:21 — Coming home: signing with the Utah Talons and the AUSL
    • 30:29 — What it means to be part of the moment softball has been waiting for
    • 31:43 — The ESPNW Summit, the Sephora Times Square billboard, and pitching in NYC
    • 33:36 — Words of advice to the 18-year-old stepping into college softball
    👤 ABOUT DALLAS ESCOBEDO MAGEE:
    • 2011 NCAA National Champion | Arizona State University
    • 2011 WCWS Co-Most Outstanding Player
    • 2011 First-Team All-American | Pac-10 Freshman of the Year
    • Career record at ASU: 115–26 | 1,222 strikeouts (2nd all-time in program history)
    • NPF #1 Overall Draft Pick (2014) — Pennsylvania Rebellion
    • Team USA Junior National Team | Team Mexico National Team (2016–present)
    • 2020 Tokyo Olympian 🇲🇽 — First pitcher in Mexico's Olympic softball history
    • Threw the pitch that qualified Mexico for their first-ever Olympic appearance (2019)
    • 7 seasons with Toyota Shoki — Japan Diamond League
    • M.S. Autism & Behavior Analysis | Pitching Coach, Cal State Fullerton
    • 2026 AUSL — Utah Talons
    📱 Follow Dallas: @dalpal12 on Instagram 📻 ABOUT OUT OF LEFT FIELD: Out of Left Field is the softball podcast that goes deep on the players, coaches, and stories growing this game. Hosted by Abby Alonzo, OLF covers professional softball, women's sports, NIL, and the culture of the game — from the field to the business side. 🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss an episode.
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    36 min
  • What Is the PSL? | Professional Softball League 2026 with Florida Vibe Owner Ryan Moore

    What Is the PSL? | Professional Softball League 2026 with Florida Vibe Owner Ryan Moore
    May 14 2026
    Ryan Moore is the owner of the Florida Vibe professional softball team and the spokesperson for the Professional Softball League (PSL) — the newest professional fastpitch softball league launching its inaugural season June 12, 2026. The PSL features seven teams broadcasting on the All Women's Sports Network (AWSN), available on Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, and DirecTV. In this episode of Out of Left Field, Ryan breaks down how the PSL was formed, what it means for professional softball players, and where the league is headed in 2026 and beyond. 🎙️ WHAT WE COVER:
    • What is the Professional Softball League (PSL) and how it was formed
    • PSL 2026 inaugural season — 7 teams, opening day June 12, 2026
    • Florida Vibe selection show — May 22nd at 7PM on True TV
    • How Ryan Moore founded the Florida Gulf Coast League (FGCL), the first summer collegiate softball league in the country
    • Building the American Collegiate League (ACL) as a national platform for collegiate summer softball
    • How the Florida Vibe became the longest-tenured independent pro softball team in the country
    • PSL vs. previous pro softball leagues — what makes this structure sustainable
    • PSL broadcast deal — AWSN, Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, DirecTV
    • Three PSL expansion teams already approved for 2027
    • UMR Sports complex in Bradenton, Florida — softball stadium, five-plex fields, grand opening Memorial Day 2027
    • Pro softball player salaries and the five-year vision for six-figure pay
    • The PSL's minor league feeder system — the APCL
    • Michelle Smith, Dot Richardson, Lonnie Alameda, Kenny Jeske — building trust in the softball community
    • Danielle Watson, Riley Boone, Michaela Enfield, Taylor Pleasants — Florida Vibe player connections
    • Growing women's professional sports and extending careers post-college
    ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 – Intro 0:25 – Ryan Moore's background: baseball, dairy farm, no softball roots 1:24 – The moment that started everything — softball players sitting in the stands 3:19 – Googling "college summer softball" and finding zero results 3:46 – Founding the FGCL in 2020 with one tweet and no contacts 5:13 – COVID, the USSSA Pride, and discovering the softball world 9:02 – Earning trust as a softball outsider — Michelle Smith, Dot Richardson, Lonnie Alameda 13:43 – Why the PSL was formed and how independent teams unified 15:01 – The grassroots community model behind the Florida Vibe 18:26 – PSL ownership structure — equal shares, no top-heavy control 19:44 – What makes the PSL sustainable where past pro softball leagues failed 22:48 – Building UMR Sports on family farmland in Bradenton, Florida 25:38 – Softball stadium, five-plex fields, Memorial Day 2027 grand opening 27:04 – What it means to create professional opportunity for women athletes 29:24 – Spending the night in the hospital with an injured player during COVID 32:50 – Five-year vision: six-figure salaries and a minor league pipeline for pro softball 33:39 – PSL Opening Day June 12 + Florida Vibe selection show May 22nd on True TV 👤 ABOUT RYAN MOORE: Ryan Moore is the founder and owner of UMR Sports and the Florida Vibe — the longest-tenured independent professional softball team in the country, based in Bradenton, Florida. He founded the Florida Gulf Coast League (FGCL), the first summer collegiate softball league in the United States, and the American Collegiate League (ACL), a national network of regional collegiate summer softball leagues. He serves as spokesperson for the Professional Softball League (PSL), a seven-team professional fastpitch softball league launching its inaugural season in June 2026. 📅 KEY DATES: Florida Vibe Selection Show: May 22, 2026 at 7PM on True TV PSL Opening Day: June 12, 2026 UMR Sports Complex Grand Opening: Memorial Day Weekend 2027 🎙️ ABOUT OUT OF LEFT FIELD: Out of Left Field is the softball podcast interviewing the players, coaches, and builders growing the game of fastpitch softball. Host Abby Alonzo covers college softball, professional softball, and the stories behind the sport. New episodes dropping regularly. 📲 FOLLOW OUT OF LEFT FIELD: Instagram: @olfmedia TikTok: @outofleftfieldmedia Subscribe and hit the bell for new episodes every week.
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    38 min
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