Maya Brady became the first AUSL player to reach double digits in home runs on Saturday night, launching her ninth and tenth homers of the year.
Morgan Zerkle set the league's home run record with nine long balls last season for the Bandits in the AUSL’s inaugural season.
Brady’s second home run of the game came at the most opportune time, too. Trailing by a run in the seventh inning, the Spark were two outs away from elimination before Brady slugged a solo shot that landed among the trees beyond the right-field fence. Oklahoma City went on to defeat Carolina in extra innings, 12-4, to keep its season alive.
The Spark -- currently riding a four-game winning streak -- need to win Sunday and Monday to clinch the No. 3 seed for Thursday’s AUSL Play-In Game.
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Brady, the niece of seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, also clubbed a line-drive home run to left-center field in the fourth inning.
But in what has become an epic home-run chase, Brady did not hold sole possession of the single-season record for long. Portland’s Megan Grant -- who is UCLA’s all-time leader in home runs, with 91 -- tallied two home runs of her own later on Saturday in a 10-1 win over the Volts.
Grant launched an opposite-field homer that cleared the left-field wall in the third inning, then added on with a towering shot to left-center field in the fourth for No. 10 on the year.
Brady will have a chance to surpass Grant in either of the next two games for the Spark. Meanwhile, the regular season is over for the Cascade, who can clinch the No. 3 seed in the AUSL Play-In Game if the Spark lose one of their remaining two games.