Kowalik’s Leadership and Grit Shine Through
Kayla Kowalik Leads the Way to AUSL All-Star Cup Title
Kayla Kowalik is your 2025 AUSL All-Star Cup Champion. Kowalik had been holding the lead for some time, and with today’s results, she officially claimed the title with a total of 1600 points. Rachel Garcia made a strong push and finished just behind her at 1448. Keilani Ricketts secured third with 1184, while Erin Coffel rounded out the top four at 1162.
Kowalik not only delivered consistently strong performances on the field, but her ability to draft rosters that meshed well and excelled in key moments highlighted just how much talent this league possesses. It also reflected the eye she has as a coach and leader, which may have played just as big of a role as her own play in capturing the championship. Who knows, maybe she will be a future GM one day.
Afterwards, I had the chance to ask Kowalik how rewarding it is to see everybody compete both as individuals while still holding onto the team aspect.
“Absolutely. I mean, we award individual points for sure, but at the end of the day, the one thing that really got me to where I’m at is having teams that have produced together and won together and competed together,” said Kowalik.
While the All-Star Cup only crowns an individual champion, the togetherness that Kowalik spoke on was evident and made perfect sense. Coming together to win innings and games helps everyone. Over the last few weeks, I even saw players lay down sacrifice bunts. That kind of unselfishness says a lot about the culture and the pride these athletes take in lifting each other up.
Another key ingredient is the chemistry and the ability to mesh together as a team, even when you may not be playing with the same group from one series to the next.
“And we may look at it and rank athletes individually, but at the end of the day, it is how well you can mesh, how well you can work together and be a team player and really get the job done to score, win innings, get inning win points, get the win points,” Kowalik explained.
Kowalik went on to say, “I think most of all, it is the new start for those coming off of regular season to, you know, refresh, re-grind, get a whole new slate. I think it is super important that despite the fact that we have individual champions and we award individual points, it is very much still a team sport.”
Kayla Kowalik showed just how important all of that was last week in one gritty game where she fouled a ball hard off her own leg. She not only stayed in, but moments later launched a home run while clearly dealing with grueling pain. There was never a doubt in her mind that she would stay in to compete. Rami Burks asked her about that moment in the press conference.
“Yeah, that was a rough one. I’m still feeling it right now, but I kind of anticipated that they would come back at some point with that pitch, because I hadn’t succeeded in hitting it. I kind of anticipated with the pitch calling that it was going to come in and I was grateful I did not have to sprint around the bases, for sure,” Kowalik said.
Kowalik did a great job of drafting these teams and competing with them. Of course, she still has a long playing career ahead of her, but I had to ask. Does Kayla Kowalik see herself being a GM one day?
“When we hang up the cleats in about 10, 15 years, I want to play forever, so I do not know if we will ever get there,” she said with a smile.
Kayla Kowalik finished the All-Star Cup 17-for-35 at the plate with a .486 average. She added 11 RBIs, two doubles, one triple, and two home runs to cap off her championship run.
As mentioned at the beginning, Kowalik ended with 1600 total points. The breakdown, according to the Leaderboard at theausl.com, included 1000 Win Points, 300 Stat Points, and 300 MVP Points.
Congratulations to Kayla Kowalik, the 2025 AUSL All-Star Cup Champion!
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