Women’s College World Series: Inside the epic home run race between Megan Grant, Kendall Wells and Jordan Woolery

Hall of Fame head coach Patty Gasso knew the type of fresh-faced heavy hitters in her dugout this season, yet one stood out above the rest even then. 

“Kendall Wells is a name you’re going to remember, and you’re going to remember from the first game,” Gasso said at Oklahoma media day in January. “She’s a solid catcher, [a] big strong freshman, and swings like some of the greats in this program.” 

Wells backed up her head coach’s claim on opening day by sending one to the left field fences at Arizona State in her third career at-bat. By the end of February, the freshman hit 15 home runs in 19 games. She finished her first season in Norman with 39 blasts after eight-time champion Oklahoma missed out on its first WCWS since 2015. 

A similar home run chase began playing out in Los Angeles, where senior Megan Grant smashed 14 home runs in 20 games in February. She hit three in her fifth game of the season. Her previous high was 26 as a junior. And senior teammate Jordan Woolery wasn’t far behind, hitting 11 in the month that set off a season-long offensive surge for NCAA Division I softball. 

The home run race, largely between Wells and Grant, took over the sport within the last month as the 31-year-old record held by Arizona’s Laura Espinoza, who smashed 37 for Arizona in 1995, eventually fell. It had been challenged by four players since 2021, but never crossed until both Grant and Wells did so this month. Woolery could also pass the mark this week.

Grant kept a sizeable distance in the race over the season’s first two weeks, until Wells hit five in five games over a three-day span from Feb. 19-21. She maintained the lead as pressure mounted until opponents began pitching around her, and she went homerless for six games at the end of the season. Grant was the first to break the record and is one short of tying Stacey Nuveman for the UCLA career record of 90. The catcher played from 1997 to 2022, winning a national championship in 1999. 

The heavy hitters began trading the lead over the first two weeks of March. They knotted at 16, 17, 19 and 21, before Wells took a sizable lead in the race. 

Here’s a look at their pivotal moments en route to resetting the NCAA Division I single-season home run record, which Grant can continue to push higher over the season’s final week. 

March 15: Wells 21, Grant 21 

The two homers Wells hit in sustained winds around 30 miles per hour at home against Auburn snapped a three-game drought. They put her total at 21, a mark Grant reached on the same day with a fourth-inning, two-RBI homer at Rutgers. Grant was three behind at 18. It was the final time the two leaders would end the day tied in the race until May. 

That’s because Wells began to pull away. 

March 31: Wells 27, Grant 23

The freshman hit a home run in six of Oklahoma’s final nine games in March to finish with an NCAA-best 27. The three-RBI shot on the final day of the month broke the SEC record for home runs in a single season. It was her 37th game, and helped lift Oklahoma to its 26th run-rule win. 

Grant endured a six-game home run skid that lingered into April. Four of those games were between March 22, when she had 23 homers to Wells’ 24, through March 31. But she had 8 hits, 3 RBIs and 3 walks during the stretch. 

Woolery, who was three back of their 21 on the same day, hit only two more the rest of the month to end with 20. 

THROUGH MARCH: Wells 27, Grant 23, Woolery 20

Grant hit home runs in each of the three games at home against Kentucky to open April, extending her home run streak to five games. The Wildcats are the only team to give up a home run to Wells in each of their matchups. 

April 10: Wells 30, Grant 28

Grant broke her own Big Ten single-season record with her 27th and 28th blasts of the season in a historic 17-0 rout of Illinois on the road. Grant hit 26 home runs as a junior, needing 29 fewer games to reach the mark as a senior. UCLA scored 14 runs and hit six home runs in the seventh inning alone. 

April 11: Wells 31, Grant 28, Woolery 23

Wells’ game-winning three-run shot in the fifth inning set the NCAA all-time freshman home run record. It was her 31st of the season. The record was a three-way tie between Oklahoma alums Lauren Chamberlain and Jocelyn Alo, and Hawaii’s Kelly Majam. 

April 18: Wells 33, Grant 31, Woolery 30

Woolery smashed two home runs each in a two-game series against California. It capped seven home runs over four games in five days to pull within one of Grant for the first time since Feb. 27. 

April 24: Wells 35, Grant 33

Wells sent her first pitch over the fences against Georgia for the program’s single-season record. Her 35th home run broke the mark set by Jocelyn Alo in each of 2021 and 2022, and she did it in 48 games. It also broke the NCAA record for most home runs by a team in a single season with 165. 

She hit No. 36, one shy of the NCAA record, the following day. Grant also notched a home run to remain two behind. All three, including Woolery, went without a home run on Sunday to finish off the month. 

THROUGH APRIL: Wells 36, Grant 34, Woolery 31

Wells stalled at 36 as the calendar changed to May. The five-game stretch was the longest of her career without a home run, while opposing pitchers began to avoid the slugger. She walked nine times in those five games with one intentional walk. 

Grant hit her 35th home run on May 2. One week later, she tied Wells at 36 in the Big Ten Tournament opener on May 7. 

May 9: Grant 38, Wells 36, Woolery 33

Grant hit one home run in each of the three tournament games, first tying the all-time single-season record of 37 in the semifinals and breaking it a day later in the championship game loss to Nebraska. 

May 15: Grant 38, Wells 37, Woolery 34

Wells snapped the slump with a fourth-inning 289-foot bomb to the center field garden that scored two in the NCAA tournament opener against Binghamton.  The freshman’s stretch between home runs spanned 22 plate appearances that included 10 walks. 

May 17: Grant 40, Wells 37, Woolery 34

Grant cleared the bases with her seventh career grand slam in the fifth inning, breaking open Game 2 of the regional series with South Carolina. Grant came to bat in another bases-loaded situation and brought in two runs with a single to left field. UCLA won, 15-1. 

“Breaking records, setting records, just playing big on this stage is what this girl (Grant) came here to do, and I’m just so proud she had the opportunity with the bases loaded to actually get a pitch,” head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “That was awesome.” 

Grant did not hit a home run in the super regional series win over UCF over the weekend. The Knights walked her three times in Game 1 and another three times in Game 2. A third-inning sac-fly brought in the game-tying run in Game 2 before UCLA jetted off a 14-4 win. 

May 22: Grant 40, Wells 39, Woolery 34

Wells broke the previous record one week after Grant on a two-RBI shot to left center in the third inning of Game 1 against Mississippi State in the super regional round. It gave Oklahoma the 2-1 lead. But the Bulldogs tied it at 6-6 in the sixth and came back from a four-run deficit to win, 11-9, and put Oklahoma on the brink of elimination. 

It was Wells’ sixth two-home run game of the season, and first since March 21. She had a career-high four hits, going 4-of-4 until fouling out in the seventh inning.

Outside of Grant, Wells and Woolery, three players hit 27 home runs each, the closest competitors to the leading trio. With Wells, who played fewer games at Oklahoma than the UCLA duo, now out of the chase, it comes down to Grant and Woolery as UCLA prepares to face Alabama on Thursday. Grant is after the program’s all-time mark, and setting the single-season number as high as possible with heavy hitters coming up. Wells has three seasons to break the single mark. Woolery can become the third player this year to break the previous record.