Like most natural hitters, senior Jordanna Freemer wasn’t thinking much about the pitch coming her way, or where or how she was going to hit it.

She just swung at it, hard. And just like that—without even a thought—SF State’s home run record was toppled.

“Usually when I hit home runs I don’t notice what pitch it is,” Freemer said. “I’m just swinging ... and then sometimes I get lucky.”

Freemer hit her 29th career homer for SF State against the Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros (11-9, 5-5 CCAA) Saturday March 1, leapfrogging Natalie Batista on the list of all-time home run sluggers.

Considering this softball season barely got rolling—there are at least 30 games left—she’s on course to smash the record far beyond the proverbial outfield fence.

“She’s one of the best hitters in this conference,” Gator coach Cristina Bryne said. “The movement of her hands is so fast. She was hitting doubles, singles and home runs that day. Even their coach came up and said she’s one of those kids you’ll always remember.”

Freemer hit the solo homer in game three of a four-game series to open up a 1-0 lead, but the Toros responded with a three-run inning en-route to a 5-3 victory.

Despite the loss, the Gators did rally from a 2-0 deficit in game four to win 3-2, improving to 3-7 in the conference (11-11 overall). But generally it was a poor weekend for the Gators, who lost the first two games of the series the previous day 10-1 and 3-2.

“[The home run] was pretty exciting,” Bryne said. “We needed something like that after [losing] the day before, and she came out and put a little fire in us all. You could tell it was just a huge thing for her.”

Freemer, who last year picked up an All-CCAA honorable mention, also holds the school record for career RBIs at 121—she owned that as a junior last year—and her 36 doubles puts her just 11 behind former teammate and recently graduated all-American Vanessa Rodrigue.

She also has her eye on the career hits record, but admits that would mean hitting “about .600, which isn’t going to happen, I don't think."

Added Freemer, who is hitting .340 this year, “The one [record] I really wanted was the home run, and anything else that comes along is just gravy.”

This week Freemer and her Gators are preparing for a five-team, 10-game home stand that begins with Notre Dame de Namur on Thursday, March 8, and includes conference dates with CSU San Bernadino and Chico State.

Though Bryne said that as coach she takes responsibility for her team’s defeats this past weekend, she admits her Gators need to shake off some poor luck that plagued this past weekend’s road trip as they move through the conference season.

“I mean, we left 13 people on base in that 5-3 loss,” she said. “It was one of those hard-luck games. Even the umpire jogged past and said, ‘Hey, don’t play the lottery today.’”

Bryne, who considers Freemer a team leader, hopes some of the first-basemen’s so-called slugging “luck” will begin rubbing off on the team. As for Freemer, she’s just relieved to get the record out of the way.

“It takes the pressure off,” she said. “I was walking around campus and everyone was like, ‘Are you going to do it? When are you going to do it?’ I got all worried thinking about it.”