Meet Ilove'a Brittingham: BYU's star freshman slugger

Down by four runs in the seventh inning to its rival Utah at Gail Miller Field on April 17, BYU needed some late-game heroics if it was going to pull off the upset.

Where most freshman cower in moments like these, Cougar freshman Ilove'a (Ilo) Brittingham only had one thought in her head as she stepped to the plate with two runners on base: "See ball. Hit ball."

On the very first pitch she saw, Brittingham connected on a no-doubter that flew past the center field wall, bringing the Cougars within one. BYU tied the game later in the inning and came out victorious in the eighth.

It was just another note in the long list of freshman year accolades for Brittingham, who is having one of the best seasons of any athlete at BYU.

Photo by BYU Photo

As a freshman, Brittingham is already one of best power hitters in the country. She leads the Big 12 in multiple hitting categories by a wide margin, which will almost unquestionably earn her the Big 12 freshman of the year, and will put her in contention for player of the year, too.

Brittingham surprisingly was not heavily recruited in high school, and she even almost quit playing her junior year, but one coach called her at the last second to sway her to come to Provo.

"(BYU) coach (Gordon) Eakin called me a week before signing day," Brittingham said. "He was like, 'I want you at this school, and I'm gonna fly you out next week' ... I didn't even know what BYU was."

Brittingham said that Eakin "believed" in her, and that belief was genuine. She took a flyer on the random school in Provo, Utah and quickly found what BYU was all about.

Not knowing much about the "Holy War" rivalry between BYU and Utah, Brittingham said she learned about the intensity in the fall, when the Cougars beat the Utes on a game-winning field goal by kicker Will Ferrin.

"I will remember that game forever, it was insane," Brittingham said.

So going into the season series against the Utes in April, Brittingham already had a taste of what the rivalry meant to the Beehive State, and the series lived up to the hype.

In the aforementioned game one, Brittingham hit the biggest homer of her career in the seventh inning to help the Cougars' comeback efforts.

In game two, BYU had five straight straight scoreless innings before entering the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 8-1. That's when the "cardiac Cougars" struck again, scoring nine runs in a single inning to beat the Utes for the second night in a row.

Brittingham's game one heroics will forever be remembered by Cougar fans.

BYU softball lost senior Huntyr Ava after the 2024 season following a successful career as the Cougars' best home run hitter. In her career, Ava hit 63 home runs and 231 RBI, both good for second most in BYU history.

The departure of Ava was going to be a huge loss for the Cougars' bats, but Brittingham stepped up in a way that exceeded all expectations.

BYU currently has an impressive 30-15 record and is over .500 in Big 12 play, in large part to its freshman sensation.

Brittingham is on pace to surpass Angleine Quiocho's record of most career home runs at BYU (66) and is already in the top 10 for most homers in a single season (18).

As the Cougars get closer to postseason play, keep an eye on Ilo Brittingham. You could easily watch history being made.