Starting today, fifty-six top softball players around the world are going to battle at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Illinois, in an innovative professional softball league: Athletes Unlimited.

Rather than on the four teams, the scoring system is athletes-centered: during every game, the athletes will play to get points based on their individual performances and statistics. Potentially every play might change the leaderboard.

Every week the four teams will be drafted by the top 4 athletes of the previous week. After five weeks of battling on the field, the player with most points will be crowned as the individual champion on September 29.

Together with Olympians, NCAA Players of The Year, Rawlings Gold Glove winners, two European will try to win the trophy: Erika Piancastelli and Nerissa Myers. For the first week, Italian Softball Team Captain Piancastelli will be part of the Orange Team, and the British Player Myers will be in the Purple Team.

In her instagram, Piancastelli commented: "Thank you, Athletes Unlimited, for this amazing new opportunity!! I can't wait to share the field with so many talented women & grow this beautiful game even more!"

On Opening Day, August 29, 2020, Orange Team will face Purple at 1 PM Eastern Time, 19:00 Central Europe Time, and Team Gold will play against Team Blue at 4 PM Eastern Time, 22:00 Central Europe Time.

For Europe, Athletes Unlimited season will be available on The Olympic Channel and YouTube.
For the USA and Canada, the games will be broadcast by CBS Sports Network and ESPN. Fans in Latin America can watch it on ESPN Play and YouTube.

All the info can be found at the Athletes Unlimited website and social media.

/ Elda Ghilardi
Photos and graphics courtesy of Athletes Unlimited