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Out of Left Field

Out of Left Field

Written by: Abby Alonzo
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Welcome to Out of Left Field (OLF) — a new media platform dedicated to growing the game of softball through interviews, stories and coverage.

🎙️ Player-first interviews that give athletes the mic.
🎬 Mic’d up highlightd bringing you inside the action.
🥎 Softball storytelling you won’t find anywhere else.
⚡ Bold takes + explainers that break the box and keep you in the game.

From the Athletes Unlimited Softball League to the next wave of women’s sports like flag football, OLF is here to capture the moments, amplify the voices, and bring fans closer to the stories that matter.

📲 Subscribe for new videos every week.
📧 Business inquiries: outofleftfieldmedia@gmail.com
🌐 Follow us on:
Instagram: @OLFmedia
TikTok: @outofleftfieldmediaCopyright Abby Alonzo
Episodes
  • Jess Clements: UCLA & Cal Poly Star on Identity, Pressure & Her Dad's Letters | Out of Left Field

    Jess Clements: UCLA & Cal Poly Star on Identity, Pressure & Her Dad's Letters | Out of Left Field
    Jun 18 2026
    Jess Clements — UCLA & Cal Poly outfielder and AUSL Chicago Bandits rookie — joins Out of Left Field for a raw, honest conversation about identity beyond the sport, processing disappointment as a pro, the dad letters that shaped her, and what makes the AUSL culture so special. Filmed in Chicago on the OLF Summer of Softball nationwide tour. ▶️ SUBSCRIBE for more long-form athlete storytelling! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN THIS EPISODE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ - From Salinas, CA to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo — agriculture major turned softball star - Why she entered the transfer portal & chose UCLA for her fifth year - Earning her master's in coaching & leadership while playing pro - Being a "learner": where her curiosity and competitiveness come from - Tying self-worth to performance — and learning to let go - The autograph debate: athletes are people, not just performers - Her dad's daily emails from birth, printed in binders she still keeps - Quitting pitching (and the letter that set her free) - Playing up with older girls, isolation & finding your support system - Processing disappointment & pressure as a pro right now - How a veteran teammate's words grounded her mid-slump - What makes the AUSL bond and culture genuinely different ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMESTAMPS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro — On the green in Chicago 00:36 Jess's story: Salinas, Cal Poly & UCLA 01:12 Pursuing a master's while playing pro 03:24 Where the hunger to learn comes from 04:14 Bringing a learner's mindset to softball 05:30 What Cal Poly taught her 06:22 Identity beyond the sport & the autograph debate 09:08 Serving others as a character trait 09:48 Her dad's influence & the daily email letters 12:10 What those letters mean to her now 12:18 Quitting pitching — the email that freed her 13:16 Softball dads & playing up with older girls 14:11 Advice to her younger, isolated self 15:50 Processing disappointment as a pro 17:28 Who she leans on right now 18:18 The AUSL vets, rookies & a teammate's reminder 19:43 Why the AUSL culture matters for women's sports ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT JESS CLEMENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Jessica "Jess" Clements (#5) is an outfielder for the AUSL Chicago Bandits, drafted in the 2025 allocation draft. A Salinas, California native, she starred at Cal Poly — leaving as the program's career batting average leader (.414) and the 2022 Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year — before transferring to UCLA, where she was a key bat on the Bruins' Women's College World Series run. She was the 2024 Big West Conference Player of the Year and a three-time NFCA West All-Region selection, and earned her master's in coaching and leadership through UCLA's John Wooden program. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT OUT OF LEFT FIELD ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Out of Left Field (OLF) is an independent softball podcast and media platform built on long-form athlete storytelling — going beyond the box score to the people behind the game. Hosted by Abby Alonzo. #OutOfLeftField #JessClements #AUSL #ChicagoBandits #Softball #UCLASoftball #CalPoly #WomensSports #ProSoftball #SoftballPodcast
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    20 mins
  • Sharlize Palacios on Growing Up in a Baseball Family, Transferring to UCLA, and Her Vision for Professional Softball | AUSL Utah Talons

    Sharlize Palacios on Growing Up in a Baseball Family, Transferring to UCLA, and Her Vision for Professional Softball | AUSL Utah Talons
    Jun 11 2026
    Out of Left Field host Abby Alonzo sits down with Utah Talons catcher and 2025 AUSL Champion Sharlize Palacios — one day before the Talons' first ever home opener in Salt Lake City. Sharlize opens up about growing up in Chula Vista, California in a family where softball and baseball were everything. Her dad was drafted by the Cleveland Indians. Her sister played for Team Mexico in the Olympics. And Sharlize? She walked out to the front yard in her sister's catcher's gear at 5 years old and never looked back. In this episode, Sharlize gets into:
    • Growing up around elite athletes and how her family shaped her career
    • The travel ball days with Jadelyn Allchin, Maya Brady and the Orange County Batbusters
    • The fear of entering the transfer portal and how UCLA changed her life personally and professionally
    • Imposter syndrome, mental health, and what it really takes to compete at the highest level
    • What it's like being one of 90 elite athletes in the AUSL — and the culture they're building together
    • The origin of her nickname "La Chispa" — and her connection to Fernando Tatis Jr.
    • Her vision for professional softball in the next five to ten years
    This episode is brought to you by Solaro Shades — the official eyewear of the Out of Left Field Summer of Softball Tour. Use code OLF for free shipping at solaroshades.com. Out of Left Field is an independent softball podcast built around telling the human stories behind the game. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you don't miss a stop on the tour.

    🎙️ Follow Out of Left Field:
    Instagram: @olfmedia
    TikTok: @outofleftfieldmedia
    YouTube: youtube.com/@OutOfLeftFieldOfficial

    📍 Timestamps: 0:00 — Introduction & Salt Lake City opening day energy 2:15 — Growing up in Chula Vista with a baseball and softball family 6:30 — Her dad and sister as her hitting and catching coaches 10:00 — Travel ball days with Jadelyn Allchin and the Orange County Batbusters 15:30 — The decision to transfer and entering the portal 21:00 — Losing her grandma and the personal side of the transfer to UCLA 25:00 — Imposter syndrome and mental health in elite athletics 30:00 — What it's like competing alongside the best 90 softball players in the world 36:00 — The culture of the AUSL and what they're building together 41:00 — The origin of "La Chispa" and Fernando Tatis Jr. 46:00 — Her vision for professional softball in five to ten years 50:00 — The dodgeball tournament and closing thoughts
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    21 mins
  • How Chelsay Day Became Softball's Go-To Sports Agent | Legacy Creators Management

    How Chelsay Day Became Softball's Go-To Sports Agent | Legacy Creators Management
    Jun 4 2026
    This week on Out of Left Field, Abby Alonzo sits down in person in Oklahoma City at the Women's College World Series (WCWS) — the first in-person episode of the Summer of Softball Tour — with Chelsay Day, founder of Legacy Creators Management, for a real conversation about building a career in sports representation from the ground up. Recorded at the WCWS in Oklahoma City, Chelsay opens up about how she got into being a sports agent and the genuine personal relationships she's built with the athletes she represents. We get into what it really takes to manage talent in today's softball world, including her work with stars like Jocelyn Alo, Alyssa Brito, Kinzie Hansen, Kelsey Stewart-Hunter, and Ashton Lansdell. We also dig into the bigger stuff: being a woman in sports, being a mom while building a company, why making time for yourself matters and how she actually does it, and why a strong personal brand is everything for athletes navigating the NIL era. This one's for anyone who loves softball, follows the business side of women's sports, or wants to understand what a sports agent actually does. This episode is presented by Triple Crown Jewelry. Like, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you don't miss a stop on the Summer of Softball Tour — kicking off at the WCWS in Oklahoma City. #Softball #WCWS #WomenInSports
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    23 mins
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