wisconsin

UCLA senior Megan Grant hit her 37th home run of the season, tying the NCAA single-season record during the Bruins’ 19-5 win over Wisconsin during the Big Ten tournament semifinal Friday in College Park, Md.

The record was set in 1995 by Arizona’s Lauren Espinoza, but Grant and Oklahoma freshman Kendall Wells have hit homers at a blistering pace all season and are battling to close the season as the new title holder. Wells has 36 home runs, but her team was eliminated from the Southeastern Conference tournament Friday and she’ll have to wait until the NCAA tournament begins to add to her tally.

Grant, meanwhile, will be in the lineup when UCLA plays regular-season Big Ten champion Nebraska for the league tournament title at 10 a.m. Saturday in College Park, Md. The game will air on the Big Ten Network. First pitch was shifted earlier with the hope of avoiding storms in Maryland.

Grant’s teammates celebrated blast No. 37 and cheered behind her while she was interviewed on the Big Ten Network.

“I was just focusing as much as I can, just competing within that at-bat,” Grant said when asked about her record-tying blast. “… A one-on-one battle is all I think about. It kind of had a good payout.”

During their semifinal win over Wisconsin, the Bruins hit four home runs and pushed their NCAA record single-season team home run total to 181.

Earlier Friday, UCLA senior Jordan Woolery was named Big Ten player of the year by the league’s 17 head coaches.

Woolery leads the nation in RBIs (107) and is the fifth player in NCAA Division I history to record more than 100 RBIs in a season.

Bri Alejandre, Aleena Garcia, Rylee Slimp and Grant joined Woolery on the All-Big Ten first team. Bruins Kaniya Bragg, Alexis Ramirez and Taylor Tinsley earned second-team honors.

April 18 (UPI) — Tornadoes swept through several midwestern cities Friday leaving destruction and devastation in their wakes as a massive storm system tore through the area.

Rochester, Minn., Lena, Ill., and Ringle, Wis., were hit by tornados on Friday.

Rochester saw winds at about 130 mph. The NWS has teams surveying the damage in Minnesota and Wisconsin Saturday, CBS News reported.

No injuries have been reported, the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office said. But damage to homes and vehicles was extensive in Rochester.

No injuries were reported in Lena, Ill., either, though there is extensive damage. The village in northwestern Illinois is completely blocked, the Stephenson County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook.

“There is no way to get into town due to trees and wires down,” the post said. “Emergency Services are assisting people per Sheriff [Steve] Stovall.”

“We are extremely fortunate that this storm did not result in loss of life or serious injury,” Stovall said in a statement. “Our focus remains on ensuring the safety of our residents, securing the affected areas, and supporting the Village of Lena as recovery efforts move forward.”

About 75 homes suffered damage in Ringle, Wis., west of Green Bay. Ringle Fire Chief Chris Kielman said some people were trapped in their basements, but there were no injuries or deaths.

A tornado flipped a semi-tractor near Elgin, Minn., and caused damage on two farmsteads, The Weather Channel reported.

More storms are expected in the region Saturday, but they aren’t likely to be as severe.

Wisconsin has seen a week of destruction as severe weather has pummeled the state. On Monday, a tornado touched down in the central part of the state, followed by five touchdowns on Tuesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. There was another round of storms on Wednesday that flooded homes, businesses and roads in Milwaukee.

“Having four out of five severe weather days with tornado activity is very rare for southern Wisconsin, especially in April,” Marcia Cronce, a meteorologist with the Milwaukee/Sullivan National Weather Service office, told the Journal Sentinel. “We had a very broad weather pattern over the center of the country, and Wisconsin was right in the battleground.”

“I have not seen devastation like this in my 35 years working in Marathon County,” Marathon County, Wis., Sheriff Chad Billeb said.

“Most of the damage [in central Wisconsin] is associated with the potential tornadoes that occurred,” Scott Berschback, a meteorologist with the Green Bay weather service office, told the Journal Sentinel.

“One of these events is not rare — we have severe weather quite often in April — but the back-to-back nature of them is a pretty unprecedented event,” Berschback said.

Dave Vetsch told CBS he was next door to his father’s place with two of his sons at his business when his kids said they had a tornado alert on their phones.

“We stepped out on the loading dock and holy smokes, there was one coming right at us,” Vetsch said.

Andrew Hawkins’ father-in-law lost his home to Friday’s tornado in Rochester.

“You always, you know, see it on the news and hear about it, to see it is another thing,” Hawkins said.

“The electricity went out, and I took the dog and went down in the basement in the shower, and I heard a big old crash, and I thought, ‘Oh, well, there goes the roof!’ but it wasn’t,” said Marcia, a Lena resident, to CBS. The noise was a large tree falling in her yard.