STARKVILLE – Mississippi State softball’s volunteer assistant coach DJ Sanders played in Athletes Unlimited’s new AUX Series over the past two weeks and finished the condensed campaign with 808 points.

 

AUX featured three series of six games each with three newly drafted teams for each series. Each team played four of the six games per series, meaning each individual player had the chance to compete in a dozen contests. As with the Athletes Unlimited regular season, players score points for their individual performance as well as their team’s results, which make up their season total for the leaderboard.

 

Sanders played eight games but was unavailable for the final series due to an injury. She finished No. 27 on the leaderboard, but she was sitting at No. 14 before missing out on the final series. Sanders averaged 101 points per game in AUX. Had she kept scoring at that pace in all 12 games, a 1,212 score would’ve landed her a ninth-place finish.

 

Despite seeing limited action, she was effective when available. For the season, she batted .500 (5-for-10) with a double, three RBIs and a walk.

 

On June 14, Sanders delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in her lone at-bat before putting on the headset to speak with the broadcast team from the dugout in-game. She also pinch hit successfully in the bottom of the fifth on June 18 in an 8-4 win against Team Mulipola.

 

The following day, again facing Team Mulipola, Sanders drove a two-run double in the third inning to give Team Fischer a 4-0 lead. That would prove to be enough as her squad held on for a 7-3 victory. She later scored in that inning and singled in the sixth. In her final game of the series, she went 1-for-2 after entering as a pinch hitter in a 3-0 victory.

 

Sanders’ squads went 5-3 in the series. She was not included in the third draft and was not on a roster.

 

The Athletes Unlimited regular season begins with the Week 1 Draft on July 25. Sanders will join former Bulldog and 2022 AU College Draft Pick Mia Davidson in the league’s regular season, which begins play on July 29. All Athletes Unlimited regular season games can be seen on the ESPN family of networks or streamed on ESPN+.

 

For more information on the Bulldog softball program, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching “HailStateSB.”