Throwback Thursday: In Honor of Jessica Harper’s 80th Home Run at Arizona, We Go Back to 2016 PGF Nationals When She Slugged Two in One Key Game!

On Wednesday, Arizona senior slugger Jessie Harper hit home runs #79 and #80 and drive in six runs as the Wildcats beat Florida A&M 8-0 in five innings in Tallahassee, Florida

The red-shirt senior shortstop hit a solo home run in the first and then smacked a two out grand slam in the second inning to make her the 11^th player in NCAA history and the fifth Arizona player to hit 80 or more career home runs.

The pair gave her four for this season and means she’s 15 shy of Lauren Chamberlain’s NCAA record of 95 set at Oklahoma in 2015.

Jessie was a home run hitting-machine pre-college too.

Back in 2016, she helped Dean Fausett’s So Cal Choppers finish 3^rd at PGF 18U Nationals as she went on a home run hitting flurry then too, smashing six home runs that week!

One of the key games for the Choppers and Jess that week took place on July 25, 2016 when the graduated senior slugged two home runs in an opening round bracket game against the then two-time defending champion OC Batbusters.

The matchup was important because whoever lost went into the Loser’s Bracket.

Here’s my recap of the big battle between the two So Cal powers:

The PGF 18U Premier Nationals only had a handful of bracket games on Monday but what an eye-opening start it was in first-round play.

The OC Batbusters-Stith team is the two-time defending champ at the 18U Premier level, but Mike Stith’s squad will have a long road to go to make it three in a row.

In the premier first round bracket game, the Batbusters fell to the So Cal Choppers-Fausett team 4-0 as Arizona signee Jessica Harper was the difference in the game, slugging a pair of home runs and knocking in three for Dean Fausett’s squad.

Harper says she was “calm… and wanted to help my team as much as I could.”

Without pitcher Taylor Dockins, who is recovering from cancer surgery, Harper says the team is inspired to up its play and rallied behind today’s starting pitcher Brooke Yanez, a 2017 grad going to UC Davis.

Yanez pitched a four-hitter with five strikeouts.

I caught up with Jessie after the game and interviewed her… below is that clip.

You can see that even then she was poised, well-spoken and gave credit to her teammates and even the pitchers she homered off of (one of whom, Mariah Lopez, she’s teammates with today!).

*****

Bonus Coverage: A Q&A with Jessie Harper at the 2016 PGF Nationals & the Louisville Slugger

Here’s a fun get-to-know you piece I did with the slugger in July, 2016:

Player: JESSICA HARPER
Hometown: Stevenson Ranch, California
Club Team: So Cal Choppers-Fausett
College: University of Arizona
Position: Middle infield
Top honors: PGF All American, 1^st Team All-American, CalHiSports.com 1^st Team All-State, All-Foothill League Player of the Year, Division 1 All CIF Southern Section 1st Team, Daily News 1st Team

*** Scroll down to learn more about Jessie including why she picked Arizona, what her approach to hitting was back then and the thing you’d never catch her doing!

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