Just because a player doesn’t receive a Golden Ticket during her final year of college softball, it doesn’t mean she won’t make it to the AUSL. For the second straight season, an Arizona softball senior learned that when Grace Jenkins was chosen by the Oklahoma City Spark from the reserve pool.
The reserve pool consists of players who are available to play when regular players are unavailable. Many of the league’s stars play professionally in Japan or for their national teams. The reserve pool has players who can step in when others are fulfilling those obligations.
Jenkins spent her final year of college softball as a Wildcat. She transferred to Tucson after a superb three years at UConn, where she ended her stint as the BIG EAST Player of the Year in 2025.
At Arizona, Jenkins continued to pile up the honors. She was All-Big 12 First Team, CSC Academic All-District, and an NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete.
On the field, she played in 55 games with 54 starts. She hit .336 with seven doubles, two triples, and 14 home runs. She had a .706 slugging percentage and a 1.153 OPS.
Jenkins came in with All-American credentials at catcher, but she moved to right field since Arizona already had an All-American catcher in Sydney Stewart.
Jenkins will join Stewart as rookies in the league’s second season. Last year, Miranda Stoddard played the beginning of the season as part of the reserve pool, joining Devyn Netz as first-year professionals.
The addition of Jenkins to an AUSL roster gives Arizona eight players who spent at least two seasons as Wildcats or finished their college careers in Tucson. Six of the eight were in Hillenbrand when their senior days rolled around. That group includes Jenkins, Stewart, Netz, Taylor McQuillin, Alyssa Denham, and Dejah Mulipola.
