On the day Megan Grant made college sports history, the UCLA softball team couldn’t create any program history of its own.
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Despite Grant breaking the NCAA single-season home run record, the Bruins’ pursuit of their first Big Ten championship came up short again in a 7-2 finals loss to Nebraska on Saturday in College Park, Maryland.
“Pitch was up. And I had a feeling it was out,” Grant said of her record-setting smash. “Once I heard the crowd cheering, I kind of usually just put my head down and run as hard as I can to first base, and then I think right when I touched first, I knew.”
UCLA, in its second year in the Big Ten, has lost back-to-back conference championships. It fell to Michigan 2-0 in last year’s title game. Nebraska won its first Big Ten title since 2022.
Grant’s solo blast in the third inning, for her record-breaking 38th home run of the season, spotted third-seeded UCLA (47-8) a 2-0 lead and moved the senior past Lauren Espinoza’s mark set for Arizona in 1995. The mammoth two-out blast, on a two-strike count, soared over the scoreboard in center field.
“I mean, it’s incredible just to, I mean, when I first came into college, I wanted to put myself in the books as one of the best, and I didn’t really know how to at the time, but throughout my career, just more and more has gone on, and to be able to do that, it’s just, it’s surreal,” Grant said. “I am just so grateful for the opportunity I was blessed with, and just to follow the people that were before me. It’s just honor.”
The top-seeded Cornhuskers went to work in the bottom half of the third, with Hannah Camenzind’s bases-loaded single, followed by a throwing error from center field, helping Nebraska stake a 3-2 lead.
Kacie Hoffmann padded the lead with a two-run homer to right in the fourth and Ava Kuszak added a solo shot to left in the sixth.
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Taylor Tinsley took the loss, giving up five earned runs on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts. The Bruins committed three errors behind Tinsley, with the last one pushing across the Cornhuskers’ final run in the sixth.
“I mean, we all know Tins is an absolute dog, and you know, not a lot of pitchers can say that they’ve pitched majority of the innings here, especially at UCLA,” Grant said of the senior right-hander. “It’s just really big, because everyone brings their A game, and so Tins has to prepare for their A game every single day. And she does that so effortlessly. And a lot of stuff goes behind. You know that preparation work that she does, like everything is so detailed, and not a lot of people see that.
“But if I were to tell her anything, just know that we have her back always. Like she is a dog, and I’m going to fight for her as much as I can on that field, because, you know, she’s fighting for us as much as she can.”
Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Jordy Frahm threw a complete game for the win, allowing five hits and racking up eight strikeouts. Her throwing error in the second inning, following a single by Bri Alejandre that allowed Aleena Garcia to score, gave UCLA its first run.
Nebraska, which also won the Big Ten regular-season title, has won 21 games in a row for the longest active streak in the country.
The Bruins and Cornhuskers now await their fate in the NCAA Softball Tournament. The selection show is at 4 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2.
“I think Coach I (Kelly Inouye-Perez) had a great speech just telling us that we had nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Grant said. “And so just with that, we’re going to hold our heads high and make sure that, you know, we go into next week just as prepared as we can be, just keeping our energy intact, our focus, and just making sure that when we step on the field again, that it’s going to be high energy.”
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