Not only did the UCLA Bruins advance to the Big Ten Conference title game on Friday with a 19-5 win over Wisconsin, the Bruins saw a senior star match a major Division I college softball record.
Megan Grant matched an NCAA D-I record with her 37th home run of the season in the second inning. Grant took a pitch on the outer-third deep to left field, matching Arizona’s Laura Espinoza who accomplished the feat in 1995. Espinoza played in 72 games to slug the 37 homers while Grant matched the total in just 54 games.
For her career, Grant is now at 86 home runs in her four-year Bruin career. Despite the record-matching senior season, Grant is not a threat for the Division I career home run record, with Oklahoma’s Jocelyn Alo hitting 122 home runs as a Sooner from 2018-2022.
While Grant has been an elite player for her entire UCLA career, she’s grown in popularity this past season, joining UCLA’s women’s basketball team for their NCAA championship season. Grant was an undersized big off of the Bruins bench and even partook in some on-court dancing.
Grant and the Bruins will face Nebraska in the Big Ten tournament championship before UCLA heads to the NCAA tournament. Grant already knows where she’ll head after this season, with the Portland Cascade taking her with the fourth pick in the first round of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) Draft.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA’s Megan Grant matches Division I season home run record with 37
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
