Jaydyn Goodwin’s First AUSL Season Ended at .200

Jaydyn Goodwin signed with the Texas Volts on May 29, then hit .200 in 21 games as Georgia’s first AUSL player. She took the left-field job Amanda Lorenz left on maternity leave, on a club that finished 7-18 in Round Rock.

The Athletes Unlimited Softball League had just planted the Volts at Dell Diamond after a 2025 barnstorming year. Osterman needed a bat in a hurry. The first Bulldog in the league walked into that gap, and the summer that followed was thinner than the signing note.

A Maternity Leave Created Georgia’s First AUSL Job

Amanda Lorenz, the Volts’ 2025 left fielder, told the club she was expecting her first child and would sit out the summer. On May 27 the Volts placed her on the temporary inactive list as a pregnancy election. Two days later the club signed Goodwin for the 2026 season onto a 16-player roster, listing her as an Available Player out of Georgia.

Lorenz had started all 24 games in left in 2025, hitting.308 with 24 hits, five doubles, and five home runs. That was the production Osterman was trying to replace. Lorenz, a former Florida outfielder and 2024 Athletes Unlimited champion, later said she and her husband, Clemson baseball assistant Griffin Mazur, were expecting a girl.

THE PATH FROM ATHENS TO ROUND ROCK

1. May 26, 2026: Lorenz announces she is expecting her first child.
2. May 27, 2026: The Volts place Lorenz on the temporary inactive list.
3. May 29, 2026: Texas signs Goodwin, the first Bulldog in AUSL.
4. June 9, 2026: She is listed among the Volts’ debuts at Oklahoma City against the Spark.
5. June 18, 2026: Round Rock’s home opener arrives at Dell Diamond.
6. July 18, 2026: Her last logged game is 0-for-2 at Portland.

The league’s family policy is what made the swap possible without a midsummer void. Pregnant athletes can keep competing with clearance, or step away and still collect full base pay through pregnancy leave, plus bonuses already earned. Disclosure is optional. Lorenz chose the summer off, and a 5-foot-3 Georgia senior got the first crack at those innings.

The Volts posted the signing themselves the same day.

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Goodwin Hit.404 in Her Last Georgia Season

Goodwin is a left-handed hitter from Paris, Kentucky, who played infielder and outfielder in Athens under coach Tony Baldwin. She started 203 of 234 games across four seasons and left as a.336 hitter with 33 home runs, 136 RBI, and 221 hits, plus a.983 career fielding percentage. Georgia’s roster lists her senior line as a team-high 80 hits in 198 at-bats and a.404 average in 61 starts.

The Volts’ own signing note added a.441 on-base percentage and a.682 slugging percentage for that last college year, with 16 doubles, three triples, 11 home runs, and 45 RBI. She collected her 200th hit on April 26 against No. 1 Oklahoma and went 4-for-4 against Texas A&M on April 3. The NFCA put her on the third team as an at-large outfielder, with first-team All-SEC and first-team All-South Region tags beside it.

Teammate Sarah Gordon made second team the same week, the program’s first All-Americans since 2023 and its 25th and 26th in all. Georgia finished 41-20 after Super Regionals in Knoxville, with a program-best.349 team average. Four days after the NFCA ballot, she was a Volt.

THE SAME CALENDAR YEAR, TWO LINES

The college column is a full SEC season. The pro column is a 25-game league in which she saw 50 at-bats. They still sit on the same year, and they still do not look like the same hitter.

What the Volts Needed in Left Field

Cat Osterman, the Volts’ general manager and a three-time Olympian, did not talk about Georgia history. She talked about watching the same player have the same kind of night, then about the hole Lorenz left.

We put eyes on Jaydyn a little while back, and every time our staff watched, she had a big moment. We needed to fill some big shoes in the outfield, and the way she plays, her skills and her obvious love for the game, she fits the mold. We are excited to see her impact on both sides of the ball.

Cat Osterman, Texas Volts general manager, AUSL signing announcement

Head coach Ricci Woodard had just arrived from Texas State, where the city of Round Rock credited him with an 878-521-2 record over 25 seasons. The roster around Goodwin mixed that new college class with names already known in the sport, including pitcher Rachel Garcia, infielder Tiare Jennings, and catcher Dejah Mulipola. Rylie Boone, another outfielder, was already in the mix for the same left-field minutes Osterman had described as big shoes.

Sydney Supple, working AUSL coverage on opening day, listed Goodwin with Maya Johnson and Leighann Goode among the Volts making their professional debuts that night in Oklahoma City. The frame was a graduating class arriving together, not a Georgia pipeline story. That is how a historic first can land as a depth signing.

Twenty-One Games, Ten Hits, No Home Runs

The AUSL player page closes her 2026 line at 21 games, 17 starts, 55 plate appearances, and 50 at-bats. She hit .200 with a.259 on-base percentage and a.320 slugging percentage. Ten hits. Four doubles. One triple. No home runs. Three RBI. Seven runs. Five strikeouts.

THE 2026 VOLTS LINE

• Playing time: 17 starts in 21 games after a 61-start college senior year.
• Contact: 10-for-50, with extra-base damage limited to four doubles and one triple.
• Power: 0 home runs after 11 in the spring at Georgia.
• Last game: 0-for-2 at Cascade on July 18, with four runners left on.

She did have nights. She went 2-for-3 with two runs in the June 10 game at the Spark, and 2-for-3 with a double, a triple, and an RBI at the Bandits on July 6. The June 18 home opener against the Utah Talons produced a double and an RBI in a 4-3 loss. Those are real hits. They did not become a summer.

A.404 SEC season lives on full-time at-bats and a lineup that scored. AUSL pitching, a 16-player roster, and a club that scored 84 runs in 25 games shrink that stage. Goodwin still got the majority of the games after Lorenz left. The bat that had grown every year in Athens did not make the same jump in Texas.

Round Rock’s First Home Season Finished Last

In January the league named Round Rock the Volts’ home and put them in Dell Diamond, the park of the Round Rock Express. Mayor Craig Morgan called the city the Sports Capital of Texas and said it was fitting to house the highest level of professional softball there. The 2025 tour had already stopped for four games that ranked among the league’s best-attended dates.

Year two added two clubs and locked six teams to cities: the Chicago Bandits, Carolina Blaze, Oklahoma City Spark, Portland Cascade, Utah Talons, and the Volts. Round Rock scheduled 13 home dates, with the home opener on June 18. The regular season ran 25 games. The Volts were 8-16 and third in a four-team league in 2025. In 2026 they were worse, and they were last.

AUSL 2026 FINAL STANDINGS

Texas scored 84 runs and allowed 132, a minus-48 gap that sat at the bottom of the table. The Talons and Bandits tied at 16-9. Cascade took the last playoff berth at 14-11. The Volts were eliminated well before the Championship Series, which the Talons won. A 4-3 close over the final seven games did not move them out of sixth.

That is the club Goodwin joined when Osterman talked about impact on both sides of the ball. The historic first and the standings lived in the same dugout, and only one of them moved.

College Stars Now Stock the City Rosters

AUSL used 2026 to stop touring and start looking like a city league, then filled the extra roster cracks with players who had just left campus. Goodwin’s path was the clearest version of that: not a high draft card, a maternity vacancy, a 16-player sheet, and a June debut. The same opening night also pushed other seniors into Spark, Blaze, Cascade, and Bandits uniforms.

HOW SHE ARRIVED

• The vacancy: Lorenz’s pregnancy election on May 27, two days before the signing.
The method: Available Player, not a college-draft pick.
• The job: Left field on a roster Osterman said needed to fill big shoes.
• The result: 17 starts, a.200 average, and a last-place home season.

The Sept. 30 league re-sign tracker, posted while general managers worked 2027 deals, listed a Volts-to-Bandits move for pitcher Aliyah Binford and did not yet post a Texas deal for Goodwin. Players who are not offered a returning contract stay eligible for the winter Allocation Draft. That list can still change. The 2026 page cannot.

Georgia now has a professional first it did not have in May. It also has a completed line: 10 hits, no home runs, 7-18 in the first year the Volts could call Round Rock home. On July 18 in Hillsboro she went 0-for-2. That is where the first Bulldog season stops.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where Did Jaydyn Goodwin Grow Up?

She is from Paris, Kentucky, and went to Bourbon County High School, where she played point guard and was named most improved and defensive player of the year. She played club softball only, starting with the Mojo program at 10U, and was PGF 14U MVP in 2019 after hitting.488 for a championship team. She was born July 18, 2004.

How Did the Texas Volts Add Goodwin Without Drafting Her?

The AUSL player page lists her as an Available Player after Georgia, a mid-roster add rather than a college-draft selection. Lorenz’s May 27 inactive listing opened a 16-player spot, and Texas signed her on May 29, with the university posting its own note on May 31.

What Did Jaydyn Goodwin Study at Georgia?

She majored in communication studies. The AUSL bio says she lists Baldwin as a person who made a difference in her life and names First-Team All-SEC honors and getting baptized among her proudest accomplishments. She has a dog named Nola.

Who Is Jaydyn Goodwin’s Sister in College Softball?

Her older sister, Jaycee Goodwin, played softball at Georgia State. Their parents are Jana and Jay Goodwin, and she also has an older sibling, Cam’ron, and a younger sister, Jaylynn. The AUSL page notes she is one of four children.