Oklahoma’s Jocelyn Alo Breaks NCAA Home Run Record

Already a national champion, the reigning player of the year and an inspiration in her often overlooked home state, Jocelyn Alo now stands alone as the NCAA’s all-time home run leader. 

And she got to take her curtain call at home.

After pulling level with previous holder Lauren Chamberlain on Feb. 20, Oklahoma’s Alo claimed sole possession of the record by hitting her 96th home run Friday in the top of the sixth inning against Hawaii on a 2-1 curveball from Ashley Murphy. This week marks the first collegiate games Alo has played in her home state.

It’s the third time this century that the career home run record changed hands, Chamberlain holding it for nearly seven years after surpassing former UCLA star and U.S. Olympian Stacey Nuveman. 

Opponents tested Alo’s patience as she approached the record. With an opportunity to break the record two weeka ago in the Mary Nutter Classic, Alo instead walked 10 times and was hit by a pitch. By way of comparison, that’s more than twice as many walks as she drew in eight games during last season’s Women’s College World Series. She saw little more to hit back in Norman, Oklahoma, walking in each of three plate appearances during Oklahoma’s home opener against Minnesota this past Monday.

In all, Alo walked 18 times in the nine games between tying and breaking Chamberlain’s record.

While Alo is in her fifth year with the Sooners, as a result of the NCAA extended eligibility for athletes whose 2020 seasons were affected by the pandemic, she reached the record in a hurry. The record-breaking game was her 224th for the Sooners. That is only slightly behind Chamberlain, who hit her final two home runs in her 220th and final game, and 40 fewer games than Nuveman played. 

The speed with which she reached the record is part of Alo’s story in more ways than one. She remains almost even with Chamberlain in games played, in part, because Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso told Alo to take a two-week break during her sophomore season. After hitting 30 home runs as a freshman, she struggled with expectations the next year — to the extent that, in her coach’s words, she became a distraction.

It says something about the talent involved that Alo finished that season of supposed turmoil still hitting .379 with a 1.214 OPS and 56 RBIs in 59 games. But the episode marked a turning point, with Alo rediscovering a passion for the sport and a growing comfort level with being one of its biggest stars. 

“I wasn’t mature enough to handle just what was going on around me,” Alo reflected after tying the record. “I didn’t know how to handle questions, I didn’t know how to handle pressure, I didn’t know how to handle a lot of things. Because when you come in as a freshman, you’re kind of just like ‘All right, here I am.’ But come back your sophomore year, things start to change, you have a little higher expectations. … 

“I think it was just a learning curve for me. It’s definitely helped me now to the player I am today.”

After the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, in which she hit eight home runs in 24 games, she assured herself a chance at the record with a monster 2021 season. Alo already owns two of the most prolific single-season home run totals in NCAA history, hitting 30 as a freshman in 2018 and 34 en route to a national title a season ago. The latter is the second-best total ever, trailing only former Arizona slugger Laura Espinoza’s 37 home runs in 1995. 

While not as flashy a stat as the raw home run count, perhaps the number that says the most about the impossible dilemma pitchers face is that Alo has almost 30 more career home runs than strikeouts. 

Chamberlain has consistently ranked among Alo’s biggest supporters. Alo recalled recently that the two met for the first time at the Mary Nutter Classic, when the younger player was in the middle of that formative sophomore season. They remain close. But the former Sooners star isn’t the only legend who influenced the new record holder. Passing one of the shibboleths for softball sluggers, Alo grew up idolizing former Olympian Crystl Bustos. 

“Just her swing and her power is insane,” Alo said. “I wanted to be that one day, and obviously I want to be on USA as well.”

Now, it’s Alo who influences a younger generation — especially in her home state. The first Hawaiian to be named USA Softball Player of the Year, she had to spend many of her summers growing up in California to be able to play high-level travel softball. But she remains intensely proud of her background. 

“When she gets her mind set on it, she gets it done,” Gasso said. “That did start from a young age. I think it was the underdog — ‘Kids from Hawaii don’t do this on the big stage. I’m going to be the first female that people know my name.’ And here we are four, five years later.”

Coincidentally, both Oklahoma record holders hit home runs in Hawaii, Chamberlain doing so during Oklahoma’s last visit to the state in 2015.

To put 96 home runs in context, there have only been 13 instances in NCAA history of someone hitting 30 home runs in a season. Only one active player, Mississippi State’s Mia Davidson, is within 40 home runs of Alo (and Davidson is 16 behind).

Prying the record from her grip will be difficult. Moving it out of Oklahoma may prove even more difficult.

“To me, if somebody can break [Alo’s] record,” Gasso mused two weeks ago, “It might be Tiare Jennings.”

Entering Friday, the sophomore had 37 home runs in 77 games, ahead of even Alo’s pace through the same number of career games.

But for now, softball’s new home run champion will get to work on putting her record out of reach.