On the day Megan Grant made college sports history, the UCLA softball team couldn’t create any program history of its own.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.