How Cindy Ball-Malone Winning An AUSL Championship Helps UCF Softball
UCF Knights softball coach Cindy Ball-Malone is returning to Orlando with more than just a new experience after coaching the Utah Talons for their 2026 season in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.
Over the weekend, Ball-Malone and the Talons defeated the Chicago Bandits in a best-of-three series, winning Game 1 on Saturday, 2-1, and Game 2 on Sunday, 6-1, to capture the franchise's second AUSL title in the league's second season of operation.
"I know the first time I met all of them on a call in March, I asked them what their mission was, and they said 'To repeat,' and all I'll say is job well done," Ball-Malone said on Sunday after Game 2. "So incredibly proud of them, and I'm pinching myself with this opportunity."
While Ball-Malone's achievements do not impact the Knights directly, here are three ways that her season with the Talons could, or already will, impact UCF's softball program:
1. She is bringing back one of her assistants with her
Let's get to work, @coachkoons!
— UCF Softball (@UCF_Softball) June 26, 2026
📰 https://t.co/7OiBan3OGC pic.twitter.com/A0F10YNTao
Ball-Malone is not going to be alone when she returns from coaching the Talons, as one of her assistant coaches, Jo Koons, is going to join her coaching staff in Orlando.
Koons was on the Talons' coaching staff when they won the AUSL Championship in 2025, and she has experience as a college head coach, having spent her past two seasons leading Abilene Christian in 2025 and 2026.
Ball-Malone said that Koons was good at counteracting her "boldness," and that they "flowed on the field."
"I mean, ideally, it'd be nice to be able to have head coaches be back on staff because the game is different now," Ball-Malone said.
2. Another Feather to her Cap
Softball audiences showed up in a big way!
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) July 29, 2026
🥎 This past weekend, Game 1 of @theAUSLofficial '26 Championship averaged 732K viewers on ABC
🥎 While the full season averaged 219K viewers across ESPN networks, up 152% from the previous year pic.twitter.com/kOp9R1nNQn
The AUSL may be a young league, but it's also the league that pulled off the first-ever professional softball game aired on broadcast television, with the first game of its AUSL Championship airing on ABC. According to ESPN, 732,000 viewers tuned in for the game, making it the most-watched game to date in the league's history. So, on what may well have been the biggest stage professional softball has ever had in its history, Ball-Malone led the Talons to victory in not just this game, but in the series also.
Even isolating the exposure the AUSL Championship generated, Ball-Malone taking the title gives her a unique quality that no other college coach can have. With the Talons' previous coach, Howard Dobson, stepping away from softball after capturing the 2025 AUSL Championship, Ball-Malone is going to be the only active softball coach that can boast an AUSL Championship as part of her resume.
With a professional league title now among her career achievements, Ball-Malone has made herself a greater recruiting pull for athletes considering UCF, whether they are in the transfer portal or coming out of high school. This is on top of the lessons learned just from coaching at the professional level in the first place and the people she's worked with along the way, such as three-time Olympic gold medalist in softball Lisa Fernandez, whom Ball-Malone called her "coach of coaching."
"I'm excited to share everything that we learned here and bring it back there," Ball-Malone said on Sunday.
3. New Stadium Momentum
Ball-Malone's AUSL title comes at a fortuitous time for UCF, since it is in the midst of applying for $119 million of Tourist Development Tax funding from the Orange County government. The money would go towards three projects for the Knights, one of which is a new softball stadium that would cost about $24 million, according to UCF's TDT Funding Interest Indicator Form, which was made public by Orange County.
While the form already indicated UCF's plans to use the stadium to host early-season softball tournaments, Ball-Malone's new connection, and now prominence, in the AUSL leaves open the possibility for the league to host games in the new stadium. However, even if the AUSL does not come to Orlando, at least Ball-Malone's success on professional softball's biggest stage might still influence something that impacts her collegiate coaching job.
"It's definitely well needed, and now we just need to let [AUSL commissioner Kim Ng] know so she can have another site for AUSL in the near future," Ball-Malone said on Friday, ahead of the AUSL Championship.
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Bryson Turner is a sports journalist who covers UCF Athletics. Turner has contributed to the Black and Gold Banneret, the home for UCF Athletics on SB Nation. He has called the Orlando area home since the age of 8 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from UCF.
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