Oceanside native Megan Faraimo lives “have glove will travel” as a softball vagabond.
The two-time Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year is in Chicago this month, competing in Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball. Last month, she was at the Softball World Cup with Team USA in Castions di Strada, Italy.
Next month, she will be in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan, where she will be playing her second season with the Toyota Red Terriers of Japan’s Diamond Softball League.
“It is very difficult trying to make a life as a professional softball player,” Faraimo, 24, told The Coast News. “I am super lucky with these opportunities. Not all of us get asked to play in Japan and get paid enough money to have a sustainable career in softball. For most women playing professional softball in America, their only opportunity is this summer league [in Chicago]. A lot of us work second jobs and I am living out of the country six months out of the year – probably more next year.”
Faraimo, a 6-foot, right-handed pitcher with overpowering stuff, was the 2018 Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year as a senior at Cathedral Catholic High School. With the Dons, she had a record of 78-9, five perfect games, an ERA of 0.40 and 1,029 strikeouts — the most all-time in school history.
She was effectively unhittable as a high school player, but the young North County gunslinger was even more prolific at the college level.
A three-time NFCA All-American, Faraimo’s 101-36 career record at UCLA makes her only the fourth pitcher in program history to surpass 100 wins. For her impressive collegiate sporting career, Faraimo was named the Pac-12’s Freshman of the Year (2019) and Scholar-Athlete of the Year (2023), among numerous other accolades.
“I am very blessed with the [professional] opportunities I get, but I know not a lot of players can say the same,” Faraimo said. “They have to work a lot of different angles to make enough to live. The sport is up and coming but we have been saying that for a long time.”
Watching the WNBA and the Olympics has given Faraimo a positive outlook on the sport’s growth and future opportunities despite the complicated landscape.
“I am super optimistic with the way women’s sports in general are going,” she said. “Things like the WNBA make me excited. Women’s rugby has caught fire just with one run at the Olympics this year. This is a really great time for women’s sports.”
With the Toyota Red Terriers in Japan, Faraimo has found what she hopes could be the future of American professional softball.
“I live, laugh, and love softball,” she said. “I really like the way they operate over there, where you are at the field from nine to five. It’s genuinely my job there. I’m at the field, then home to sleep, then back at the field. That lifestyle is really great for me. The only bummer is I am so far away from family, and sometimes I miss America and hearing English and all that kind of stuff.”
Faraimo went 2-0 across 13.2 innings, notching 18 strikeouts and allowing only four earned runs, for Team USA in a silver medal-winning campaign at the Softball World Cup in July.
“Putting on that uniform is such an honor,” Faraimo said. “That doesn’t get taken away just because we lost a pretty important game. We are even more fired up for the next opportunity we get.”
In the penultimate game against Japan, Faraimo threw seven shutout innings in a 2-0 win.
“Japan’s style of softball is different, so I have to approach the game very strategically,” she said. “There was a lot of scouting going on and game planning.”
On July 20, in a rematch for gold, in front of a capacity crowd of 3,500, Faraimo struggled, allowing four earned runs in 1.2 innings of relief work in a 6-1 loss.
“It’s the nature of the game. One day, you are rolling, having the game of your life, and the very next, the game humbles you,” Faraimo said. “They made adjustments a little bit faster than I did. It’s a learning opportunity. I don’t think that takes away from my game or Team USA — it’s just the way the cookie crumbles.”
Team USA came up just short of gold, but Faraimo said this tournament will stay with her as a positive memory.
“We did a project where we talked to Team USA alums and then did a presentation on them,” she remembered. “Being able to sit in our room with women from different generations of Team USA softball and hearing stories from the past — for these presentations, a lot of us got chills. I will carry that for a long time.”
Faraimo acknowledged disappointment that baseball and softball weren’t included in this year’s Olympics. With their return in 2028, she uses the Los Angeles Olympics as career motivation.
“I was very sad,” Faraimo said with a laugh. “I just wish that softball was more popular globally. USA Softball has put a lot into growing the sport internationally. I am really grateful that it has been included in LA 2028. I do want to play for as long as my body allows me to, but 2028 is the big milestone.”
