There’s a new queen of the long ball for Indiana softball.
On Wednesday, senior Brianna Copeland made history by hitting her 41st career home run in a 8-3 win over Louisville.
“I’m glad I got to (41),” Copeland said following the victory, in which she also pitched a complete game in the circle.
Copeland’s dinger pushes her past Tory Yamaguchi for sole possession of the top spot, a record which has stood since 2008.
The Pelham, Alabama native broke the record in style. Copeland swung at the first pitch she saw in her second at-bat and sent the softball into orbit over the wall in straight away center field, landing mere feet from the parking lot.
“I didn’t really get to see where it landed,” Copeland said. “But I looked to the dugout to see if they’d give me a reaction and nobody was looking at me.”
Copeland left her teammates and coaches in shock with the approximately 240-foot bomb to stand alone atop the home run rankings.
“That thing was parked,” head coach Shonda Stanton said.
With 12 more games to go in the regular season, there’s ample time for Copeland to continue to add to her total and perhaps cement herself as the greatest slugger to come through Bloomington.
