After a stellar career for the Michigan softball team, senior right-hander Lauren Derkowski is taking her talents to the professional level, signing with the Talons of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.
Derkowski saw limited involvement in her freshman year in 2022, consigned to just five starts from the circle, but followed that with a breakout sophomore year in 2023. In her 2023 campaign, she posted an 18-12 record as a starter alongside a stellar 2.12 ERA, earning an All-Big Ten Second Team nod and firmly cementing herself as the Wolverines’ ace.
The 2024 season, Derkowski’s junior year, was truly when she began to etch her place into Michigan softball folklore. She posted a 19-10 record with a 2.29 ERA, and was named to the All-Big Ten First Team and earned the Big Ten Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award as she pitched all 19 innings en route to the Wolverines’ tournament victory.
In 2025, Derkowski endured a slightly more turbulent regular-season campaign than she was used to, but that wasn’t apparent in the Big Ten Tournament. In Michigan’s back-to-back conference tournament title run, she again earned the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award as she spearheaded Michigan’s surprising defense. She finishes her Wolverines career with a 2.34 ERA and 60 career wins — figures that highlight a collegiate career in which she was more often than not Michigan’s talisman.
And now, with the Talons — one of four charter teams in the inaugural season of the AUSL, a brand new professional softball league — she will have a chance to demonstrate her talents on a professional level.
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