Arizona's Allie Skaggs' summer keeps getting better with surprise offer to play pro softball

Allie Skaggs is having one heck of a summer.

She ended her stellar Arizona softball career on a high note at the end of May by taking a final lap in the NCAA Tournament — her third postseason in four years — and graduating.

About five weeks later, she embarked on her first trip outside of the United States — to Italy — with the Wildcats to play the Italian National Team, whose pitchers are coached by former UA great ace Nancy Evans and advised by Arizona’s legendary coach Mike Candrea.

On the final day of competition — seven games in 10 days — Skaggs got her call up to the big leagues. Well, it was actually an email from Sam Fischer, who is the chairperson on the Athletes Unlimited Executive Committee, asking her if she wanted to play in the championship season for the professional league.

It didn’t take Skaggs long to say yes. A chance to continue her playing career is on just about every softball player’s bucket list.

“We were on the bus going back to the hotel after and I was super giddy,” Skaggs said. “I was shaking a little bit and just smiling from ear to ear. And started reaching out to reaching out to my family. And then texted my people like (former Wildcat) Izzy Pacho and a couple others too, and said, ‘Hey, I have some news for you. I’m gonna go pro.’ It was the coolest thing.

“I told the coaches, too and then (UA assistant Lauren) Lappin got so excited and said, ‘Can I tell the girls?’ So as soon as we pulled up to the hotel, I said, ‘OK, you can tell the girls.’ Lap just made a huge announcement to all the girls once we were unloading the bus and I got a bunch of hugs and a bunch of celebrations from people and a lot of ‘What? I didn’t know you were doing that.’ I said, ‘I didn’t either until today.’”

The league started practicing last week at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. On Monday, they held the Week 1 draft, and Skaggs was selected to play on Team Romero. The fifth season kicks off Friday, and most games will be broadcast on the ESPN family of channels.

In one email, Skaggs’ summer got turned upside down — in a good way. After not being selected in the recently graduated college player draft, she thought she would be taking the rest of the summer off.

Instead, she is starting her professional softball career in a league that she has watched. She said that when she looked at the league roster, she knew every single player — either she grew up watching them or played against them.

Skaggs, an Ironwood Ridge High School grad, is following the footsteps of many Wildcats who have competed in the league’s championship and shorter AUX seasons. Danielle O’Toole Trejo won the first AUX competition, and Dejah Mulipola has won a championship. This season, former Wildcats Taylor McQuillin and Alyssa Denham (two runner-up finishes) will be playing alongside Skaggs.

During the second baseman’s career at Arizona, Skaggs started for three seasons and collected a Rawlings Gold Glove award, a Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honor and earned three All-Pac 12 nods. She led the league in home runs (24) in 2023, finishing with 57 career round-trippers. She finished with a career .328 batting average.

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As her career was coming to a close this spring, UA coach Caitlin Lowe shared the news that the Wildcats were going to Italy this summer. The UA team included three graduating seniors in Skaggs, Carlie Scupin and Ali Blanchard, as well as the incoming freshman.

Skaggs soaked up the experience of playing on Italian soil. She watched the different approach to the game that her opponents took. A little more technical, a little purer softball without what Skaggs called “extra behind the scenes work like scouting, stealing pitch signs and other things.”

“They just go there and play,” Skaggs said. “It was so fun to do that, too. I felt like I just was able to just go play the game for the fun of it, and I didn’t really feel any stress in the sense of needing to perform or earn my spot again at the U of A or anything like that. It was nice to just go get in the box and say, ‘Hey, this is just extra reps. This is awesome against some people that I never in my life thought I would have been playing against.’”

She also bonded with them, whether it was talking to them when they got on second base or playing hacky sack together.

Skaggs, who was involved in the recruiting of the soon-to-be Arizona freshmen, took this as an opportunity to give them a little guidance of what it’s like to be a Wildcat.

“I absolutely love giving back to girls who are on the same journey that I was on,” Skaggs said. “That’s the biggest thing I wanted to do, is to make sure that I did everything that I could to prepare them for what they might see or what they might hear that’s different in college versus in high school ball and club ball, as well.

“They are going to be phenomenal. They’re so fun to watch; they’re so fun to talk to and you’ll be entertained by them.”

Extra bases

Besides playing professionally, Skaggs is prepping for her career path, which includes coaching. She has been giving hitting and fielding clinics in Tucson and recently started a company called Bang Softball, where she gives tips. Just like her approach in the batter’s box, she isn’t getting ahead of herself when trying to decide if she will continue to give lessons and clinics on her own or coach in a more structured environment like high school or college. “I love spending my time meeting younger girls and being able to give back to the game they gave to me,” Skaggs said. “I think Tucson is a great place for it, too. And already having my name established there, and having girls that want to come, put in the work defensively and offensively, that’s one thing that I want to take advantage of.”

Somewhat connected to the coaching plan is becoming involved with her boyfriend, former UA hockey standout Josh Lusby, starting in December of 2022. “He was coaching a middle school softball team and randomly reached out to me asking if I’d like to come help out at a practice,” Skaggs said. “I said, ‘Yep, for sure. I like doing that stuff.’ Now, here we are. He’s with me in Chicago for the next six weeks. Stuck with me.”

On seeing Candrea in the other dugout when she was playing in Italy, Skaggs said, “It’s funny seeing him in the other blue, not ours.” She said she found herself looking across the field to watch him and heard his booming voice give the Italian players some of the same pushes to get going that he gave the Wildcats.