No. 10 Softball Readies for Illinois Series

Friday, April 10

Urbana-Champaign, IL

3:00 PM (PT)

UCLA

Illinois

Kaniya Bragg

Photo by: Mac Brown

No. 10 Softball Readies for Illinois Series

April 10, 2026 | Softball

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LOS ANGELES – The No. 10 UCLA softball team will play a three-game Big Ten Conference series against Illinois at Eichelberger Field in Urbana-Champaign, Ill. from Friday, April 10 through Sunday, April 12. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 3:02 p.m. (PT). All three games of the series will be streamed on BigTenPlus.com.

GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Eichelberger Field (Urbana-Champaign, Ill.)
Schedule (all times Pacific)
Friday, April 10 – UCLA at Illinois – 3 p.m.
Saturday, April 11 – UCLA at Illinois – 11 a.m.
Sunday, April 12 – UCLA at Illinois – 10 a.m.
Watch: BigTenPlus.com
Live Stats: ucla.statbroadcast.com

UCLA'S TICKET INFORMATION (HOME GAMES)
Single-game tickets UCLA's six remaining home games are on sale. Direct links to single-game ticket purchases can be viewed here. Fans can call (310) 206-5991 or email tickets@athletics.ucla.edu for more information. Additionally, fans with a 2025-26 Olympic Sports Card, available to purchase for $110, will gain admission to every home game.

KEY NOTES ON THE BRUINS
• UCLA has hit a program-record 116 home runs through 39 games this season (former record was 108 set in 2010).
• Megan Grant, a dual-sport athlete, played in 14 games as a reserve for the NCAA Champion UCLA Women's Basketball team.
• Grant (1.368) and Jordan Woolery (1.181) rank first and second in the country in slugging percentage, respectively.
• Grant (26) and Woolery (21) have each hit 20+ home runs for a second consecutive season.
• Grant tied her Big Ten record of 26 homers in UCLA's win at CSU Fullerton on April 7. She needed 29 fewer games to hit the mark.
• Grant needs one more home run to break her Big Ten single-season home run record of 26 set last year.
• Grant enters Week 10 as the NCAA leader in slugging % (1.368), OPS (2.035) and walks (45).
• Twenty-six of Grant's 47 base hits this season (55.3%) have been home runs. She ranks second in the country in homers.
• Jordan Woolery is the NCAA leader in RBIs (79) and ranks third behind Grant in home runs (21).
• Woolery has been named the Big Ten Player of the Week three times this season, most recently on March 9.
• Rylee Slimp, UCLA's leadoff hitter in all 39 games, ranks second in the country with 62 runs scored.
• Taylor Tinsley has pitched 118.1 of UCLA's 231.1 total innings this year (51.2%). She ranks third in the nation with 19 wins.
• UCLA enters Week 10 ranked second in the nation in home runs (116), slugging % (.795) and runs per game (10.59).
• UCLA has scored 222 of its 413 runs this year via the longball (53.8%).
• UCLA has recorded 20 run-rule wins this season after setting the program record with 28 run-rule wins in 2025.
• Kelly Inouye-Perez became the 55th head coach in NCAA Division I history to win 900 games at Rutgers on March 22.
• Inouye-Perez became UCLA softball's all-time winningest head coach earlier this season with her 888th career victory.
• UCLA plays its 52nd season of softball this spring, the 20th with Inouye-Perez at the helm.
• UCLA made an NCAA-record 33rd Women's College World Series appearance in 2025, and the 11th under Inouye-Perez.
• UCLA's All-America trio from last season returns with seniors Megan Grant, Taylor Tinsley and Jordan Woolery.
• Grant, Tinsley and Woolery were all named to the prestigious 2026 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List.
• Grant and Woolery led all duos in the country in 2025 with 49 combined home runs and was second with 167 combined RBIs.
• Tinsley is UCLA's lone returning pitcher after leading last year's staff with a 2.44 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 6.63 K/BB ratio in 2025.
• UCLA's roster consists of 10 returners and 11 newcomers, including six true freshmen and five incoming transfers.
• The Bruins enter their second year in the Big Ten after finishing second with a 17-5 conference record in their debut season.
• Entering 2026, Inouye-Perez ranks seventh all-time and second among active head coaches with a .796 winning percentage.

HOMER HAPPY BRUINS
• UCLA broke its single-season home run record of 108 set in 2010 with three dingers against Indiana on April 4. The Bruins needed 24 fewer games to tie and break the record. With 116 home runs through 39 games, UCLA is currently averaging 2.97 home runs per contest. Additionally, UCLA has surpassed 100 home runs for a second consecutive season under hitting coach Lisa Fernandez.
• UCLA has hit back-to-back jacks 10 times this season and six times over a stretch of seven games from March 11-23. The Bruins hit back-to-back-to-back home runs twice across that seven-game span. Before this season, the last time UCLA went back-to-back-to-back was in February 2022.
• UCLA has scored 53.8 percent of its runs this season via the longball (222 of 413 total runs scored). Eleven different Bruins have homered a total of 116 times this season, which ranks second in the country behind Oklahoma.
• Senior Megan Grant ranks second in the country with 26 home runs. She tied her Big Ten single-season home run record of 26 set last season in UCLA's most recent win versus Cal State Fullerton on April 7, needing 29 fewer games to hit that mark. She is also five homers shy of tying Stacey Nuveman's program record of 31 set in 1999.
• Six different Bruins have hit a total of 10 grand slams this season. Jordan Woolery and Alexis Ramirez have each hit a team-high three grand slams this season.

COACH I MILESTONES
• Kelly Inouye-Perez became UCLA softball's all-time winningest head coach after defeating No. 4 Florida on Feb. 27 at the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton for her 888th career victory. She passed her predecessor, former coach and NFCA Hall of Famer Sue Enquist who had an overall mark of 887-175-1 (.835). Sharron Backus, the inaugural coach in UCLA softball history, was the first to reach 800 wins as she retired with a record of 854-173-3 (.831). The three UCLA Athletic Hall-of-Fame head coaches are responsible for all of the Bruins' 2,237 wins and 13 national championships, which are both the most in NCAA history.
• Later, Inouye-Perez secured her 900th career victory in UCLA's 13-3 win at Rutgers on March 22. She became the 55th head coach in NCAA Division I Softball history to reach that milestone. UCLA has topped 50 wins in nine of Inouye-Perez's 20 seasons as head coach and reached the Women's College World Series 11 times.

USA SOFTBALL COLLEGIATE PLAYER OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST
• UCLA seniors Megan Grant, Taylor Tinsley and Jordan Woolery were named to the prestigious 2026 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List, it was announced Jan. 21. The full list is comprised of 53 student-athletes from 24 universities. This marks the third straight year Grant and Woolery have appeared on the Watch List, and the second straight for Tinsley. Last season, Grant and Woolery were USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Finalists with Grant making the cut for the Top 25 and Woolery advancing to the Top 10.
• The Top 25 Finalists for the award will be announced April 29. While an athlete does not have to be on the Watch List to be considered for the Top 25, the eventual USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will come from the Top 25 Finalists. Two Bruins have received the honor a total of three times. Rachel Garcia was a back-to-back winner of the award in 2018 and 2019 and Stacey Nuveman won the award in 2002. Six UCLA student-athletes have been a Top 3 Finalist for the award a total of nine times, most recently accomplished by Maya Brady in 2023.

WATCH THE BRUINS ON B1G+
Fans can catch all non-televised UCLA home games and road Big Ten Conference games on a high-quality streaming service, Big Ten Plus (B1G+). Annual passes ($89.99) and monthly passes ($12.99) are available for purchase here. Roughly 30 UCLA home and road games are viewable only on B1G+.