The Women’s College World Series is without the sport’s best home run hitter.

Virginia Tech’s Cori McMillan, an outfielder, is the NCAA’s HR leader for 2025, ending her season in the regional round with 31 bombs total. This takes her inside the top 10 for most home runs in a season in NCAA history.

McMillan’s story began as an underdog. In high school, she wasn’t a top recruit mashing monster home runs at every turn.

She hit extremely well, batting a stunning .629 and drawing 20 walks during her sophomore season. However, she only hit 11 home runs over three seasons. The lack of flash or power left McMillan underrecruited, who, despite a decent statistical season, was outside the top 60 players in North Carolina and outside the top 1,500 players nationally.

During her senior year, the COVID-19 pandemic shut the season down and led to systemic under-recruiting, as many players like McMillan were left unable to prove their skills to college coaches.

For McMillan, it meant two years at Radford University in Radford, Virginia. As a freshman, she bashed in 14 home runs. As a sophomore, she had only three home runs, but stole 20 bases to be named All-Big South for the second year in a row.

McMillan hit over .300 for two years, facilitating her move to a Power Four conference. Virginia Tech was that place, announcing their acquisition of McMillan in June of 2023.

Whether it was better coaching, stronger protection from teammates in the lineup, or off-the-field comforts, the only certainty is that McMillan hit the ground running in 2024. As a senior, she posted career highs in every statistical category, bagging 20 steals, smashing 21 home runs, and cashing in 64 RBIs. Those 64 RBIs were more than McMillan’s first two seasons in Radford combined.

Additionally, McMillan’s defense had a similar improvement, committing only 10% of the errors she had the previous season. That level of statistical output earned her All-ACC First team and April’s Player of the Month award.

McMillan entered her senior season in 2025 as a preseason first-team All-American.

So when McMillan began to heat up, it wasn’t a surprise, but 12 home runs through 15 games in March was a dominant start. Against Louisville, she had home runs in each of the three games in the series.

All told, Cori McMillan has put up one of the greatest power-hitting seasons in collegiate softball history. She’s picked up 65 RBIs with her 31 home runs, and has worked a stunning 44 walks as pitchers fear her more and more. She hit .432 on the year and still stole 15 bases; if she was at the plate, there was a more than 50% chance she was getting on base.

McMillan is the first ACC player to ever break 30 home runs, and was crowned a first-team All-American. All of these achievements culminated in her golden ticket to the Athletes Unlimited Softball League. She was selected Fourth overall in the draft and will debut for the Bandits in Rosemont, Illinois, in early June.

The next chapter starts now, with very little time to breathe and take stock. But fans must. When someone grows over four years from relative unknown to record-breaking dominance, the growth, the story, and the individual dominance can’t be taken for granted. Others may smash more in the future, but Cori McMillan is one of the greatest sluggers in ACC History.