NEW YORK -- At this time last year, Odicci Alexander-Bennett was preparing for her first AUSL season while performing the ultimate multitask of also carrying a baby inside her.
Fast forward to one year later, and that baby will now be in the stands watching her mom pitch all summer long.
During the inaugural AUSL campaign in 2025, Alexander-Bennett played an entire season for the Chicago Bandits while pregnant, and when she announced this last July 31, it sparked a parade of media coverage. Now, she’s preparing to enter her first season on the field after giving birth to a baby girl, Halo, on Jan. 18.
“She is a really good baby, thank you lord,” Alexander-Bennett said at a recent event at MLB’s New York offices. “So I cannot complain at all. … [But] even now, some moments I'm like, ‘I really had a baby?’”
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While pregnant, her doctors said she could resume softball activities around six weeks after the baby was born. She stuck to that timeline, returning to cage and bullpen workouts as soon as she could and posting an Instagram video on March 24 of practicing her windup. Getting back into playing shape has been a family affair, as evidenced by an Instagram post from April 22 captioned “Lil’ family bullpen” featuring her husband catching and her baby in a stroller off to the side:
It’s also been all systems go for the softball facility that she runs in Richmond, Va., called “SixFour3.” She helped run a clinic there on May 13, and she's been back training at the facility since early February, just a couple of weeks after she had her baby. This year, she hopes to invite AUSL teammates to events at SixFour3 after the AUSL season ends.
Alexander-Bennett also said she is a full-go when it comes to playing softball this season and has no physical restrictions from her doctors.
But even for a pro athlete who has been playing softball for over 20 years, it’s not necessarily smooth sailing when it comes to playing after giving birth.
Alexander-Bennett said that while her body has mostly “snapped back to normal,” she knows it’s unrealistic to feel exactly as she did physically before having her baby. For her and many women athletes before her, it may be impossible to fully reclaim their pre-pregnancy bodies after giving birth no matter how hard they train during or after pregnancy.
The mental challenge of coming back and playing post-pregnancy is another big factor. Alexander-Bennett spoke about the feeling of needing to rush to get back to playing and resume her normal life as soon as possible after giving birth, even if AUSL wasn’t pushing her to do so. For her, it’s an internal motivation stemming from her upbringing.
She’s not someone who takes it easy. She’s used to leaning on the strength she was born with (“thank God for genetics!”) and has worked hard to cultivate. She managed to play the entire 2025 season while pregnant with few limitations, but the 2026 season will be uncharted territory for her.
In the midst of an enormous life change, even Alexander-Bennett has had to take a deep breath and tell herself, “Girl, chill, relax.”
“You forget to give yourself grace after you had a kid,” she said. “So that's the hardest part for me.”
The 28-year-old is not alone in this journey. Along with support from her family, she has sought advice from fellow AUSL moms -- her ‘25 Bandits teammate Danielle Gibson Whorton and Texas Volts infielder Kelsey Stewart-Hunter have been checking in on her in her first months postpartum. Another Volts star, Amanda Lorenz, has announced that she is pregnant and will be missing the 2026 season. Nebraska softball star Jordy Frahm also recently announced that she had been playing in the NCAA postseason and Women’s College World Series while pregnant and is due with her first baby in December.
The AUSL has a robust support system for young mothers, including 100% paid maternity leave, childcare support, flexible travel and housing options and breastfeeding accommodations.
Baby Halo will be a big part of the upcoming season for Alexander-Bennett in many ways. The Bandits’ home base will be in Rosemont, Ill., near Chicago, but they’ll be on the road for several weeks. As the young mom has been getting back into playing shape, she has also been planning to have her family on the road with her.
At Alexander-Bennett’s baby shower, she received a number of “super cute” softball-themed onesies with sayings like “Your mom hits bombs” or “Your mom’s a pitcher,” so Halo will have plenty of gear to wear while cheering on her mom. When the subject of additional themed onesies came up, including one that resembled a “K” strikeout placard, Alexander-Bennett was all for it.
“Put a K on the front, a backwards K on the back. Turn her around!” she said with a laugh. “That would be kind of cool.”