Megan Faraimo Signs with Athletes Unlimited Softball

By Earl Heath

Contributing Sports Writer UCLA Super pitcher Megan Faraimo, who was selected second overall in the 2023 Athletes Unlimited Softball Draft, has signed to compete in the 2023 AUX and Championship Softball seasons. Faraimo is a two-time USA Softball College Player of the Year and two-time Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year (2023, 2022). Her name is etched into the UCLA record books for:

Single-season saves (1st – 7)

Career strikeouts (3rd – 968)

Career wins (6th – 96)

She was the 2023 PAC-12 pitcher of the Year, going 29- 3. She was also named to the USA Softball Women’s National Team for the WBSC World Cup, which will be held July 11-15 in Dublin, Ireland.

Faraimo joins fellow draftee Sydney McKinney out of Wichita State, who signed last week with the league.

AUX begins on June 12, followed by the fourth Championship season, which begins July 28 at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Ill.

Martinez and Freddie Freeman hit home runs to extend their long hitting streaks – 19 games for Freeman, 14 for Martinez – in support of starter Tony Gonsolin. Heyward also homered in a game the Dodgers never trailed on the way to their 13th win in their past 14 home games.

Freeman had four of the Dodgers’ 12 hits as a team. Heyward (2 for 2), Muncy (2 for 5) and Mookie Betts (2 for 5) made the top of the lineup especially formidable on a healthy night off for Smith.

Freeman was thrown out trying to stretch a single to a double, but his eighth-inning homer extended his franchise record for extra-base hits in a month (24). Freeman has 13 multihit games during his hitting streak and is batting .449 (35 for 78) during that span with 21 RBIs.

“I’ve been feeling pretty good at the plate,” Freeman said. “Just trying to keep it simple, not overthink things, trying to take what they give me, and I’ve been getting results obviously the last few weeks.”

Tony Gonsolin held Washington to one run over six efficient innings despite allowing plenty of hard contact. The Nationals sent four balls to the warning track in center field that landed in James Outman’s glove for an out. They hit eight balls at 100 mph or harder. They didn’t strike out until the fifth inning. Thanks to some slick plays in the field and a forgiving marine layer above the Dodger Stadium outfield, Gonsolin allowed only three hits – all in the third inning. That led to the lone run he allowed, when Gonsolin also hit Jeimer Candelario with a slider to load the bases ahead of an RBI single by Joey Meneses.

“I felt like from pitch number one, I wasn’t super sharp today,” Gonsolin said. “I was really fortunate to have an awesome defense today. That’s what kept me in the ballgame.”

By allowing one run over six innings, Tony Gonsolin (31) lowered his ERA to 1.77. The right-hander had thrown more than 70 pitches in all but one of his first six starts this season, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts elected to bring in left-hander Alex Vesia for the seventh inning.

Vesia’s first major league inning since May 2 (and his first appearance since he threw two pitches in a Triple-A game on Saturday) was a disaster. He allowed a home run to Keibert Ruiz on his first pitch. A double by Lane Thomas, followed by an RBI single by Luis Garcia, narrowed the Dodgers’ lead to 4-3.

The Dodgers (34-22) maintained their 1½-game lead (at press time. over the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks (32-23) in the National League West.