There was an upbeat tone amid a rare loss.
All that mattered for the UCLA softball team was that its biggest goal remained within reach.
“We’re going to hold our heads high and make sure that we go into next week just as prepared as we can be,” slugger Megan Grant said Saturday after the Bruins lost to Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament title game. “Just keeping our energy intact, our focus and just making sure that when we step on the field again, it’s going to be high energy.”
As expected, UCLA will take that next step at home.
The Bruins (47-8) learned on Sunday that they will host a four-team NCAA Tournament Regional at Easton Stadium, playing California Baptist (43-17) in the first game at 7 p.m. PT on Friday.
Cal State Fullerton (40-13) will play South Carolina (30-26) at 4:30 p.m. PT, with the winners of the first two games facing one another Saturday in the double-elimination format.
UCLA received the No. 8 national seed, meaning if it advances past next weekend it would host a Super Regional the following week.
Whoever plays the Bruins will have to hope for a power outage.
UCLA’s 182 home runs this season are an NCAA record, the Bruins having surged past Oklahoma (174 homers) during their three games in the Big Ten Tournament.
Grant set the single-season NCAA Division I record Saturday with her 38th homer of the season. With 85 career homers, Grant could break the school record of 90 set by Stacey Nuveman.
Jordan Woolery has added 33 homers — along with a school-record 107 RBIs — and Bri Alejandre has 21 homers for a team that leads the nation by averaging 10.8 runs per game.
The big question facing the Bruins as they seek their first national title since 2019 isn’t how many runs they’ll score but how pitcher Taylor Tinsley will hold up under a heavy workload.
Tinsley (28-6) has pitched more than half her team’s innings this season and started every game in the Big Ten Tournament.
After holding Penn State and Wisconsin to a combined one earned run in 11 innings, Tinsley couldn’t sustain that dominance against Nebraska during the Bruins’ 7-2 loss.
But her teammates know that she’s undeniably the team’s best option every time she’s handed the ball.
“We all know Tins is an absolute dawg,” Grant said, “and not a lot of pitchers can say that they’ve pitched the majority of the innings here, especially at UCLA. It’s just really big because everyone brings their ‘A’ game [against the Bruins], and so Tins has to prepare for their ‘A’ game every single day.”
