Aragon softball stars Megan Grant, Liv DiNardo all smiles at signing ceremony

Grant was joined by the first coach she ever played for, Vince Lopiccolo, who managed the now-international softball standout when she was a 6-year-old baseball player in the South San Francisco Pee Wee League.

“From that, to where she is now, night and day,” Lopiccolo said. “She just grew up to be a very mature young lady and all the respect to her family and her parents and all the coaches she’s had from then till now. They’ve just done a fantastic job.”

Grant landed with the SSF Pee Wee Phillies because it was a family tradition. Both of her older brothers, Devin and Cam, played for the Phillies. Devin had aged out by the time she arrived, but she did get to play with Cam on the Phillies, along with Lopiccolo’s two sons Carlo and Gino.

Even as a 6-year-old, Grant already demonstrated unique skills. She was a switch-hitter who, in future seasons, would grow into the catching position because of her five-star throwing arm.

The only girl on the team, Grant quickly earned the nickname “Fireball” because of her bright red hair. But everyone knew her as Devin and Cam’s kid sister.

“The best thing about her, she was afraid of nothing,” Lopiccolo said. “C’mon, she was a little sister to two brothers, and all she wanted to do was play.”

It wasn’t until Grant transitioned from baseball to softball while in middle school that she found a home at the shortstop position. She also refined her game at the plate, batting exclusively as a left-hander for softball.

She made the switch to the softball diamond seamlessly, joining the West Bay Warriors in San Mateo, where she was coached by Ray McDonald, his daughter Kelly McDonald, and sometimes even Ray’s son Mickey McDonald, who made his first major league start with the Oakland A’s Friday night.

Within her first season of organized softball with the Warriors, Grant was offered a full scholarship to play softball at UCLA.

“I believe that she was already just over the fear of anything, playing with the boys and playing baseball,” Lopiccolo said. “Her fear was taken out of it. So, I think things were kind of easy. The transition was kind of easy for her.”

Grant and DiNardo were both glowing with smiles at Friday’s 4 p.m. signing ceremony, and so was Lopiccolo. An assistant coach with the Burlingame varsity baseball team, he missed the first few innings of the Panthers’ key showdown at Carlmont to attend.

For Lopiccolo — a guy who left his heart in South San Francisco and was even proudly sporting his “SSF” baseball cap to the signing ceremony — there was no place else he’d have rather been.

The South City native was brimming with stories about Grant, and one specifically spoke to early glimpses of her work ethic. Aragon athletics coaches Frank Hunt and Steve Sell have both spoken glowingly about Grant’s commitment to her calling as an elite softball talent. Hunt’s favorite tale to tell is how Grant is persistently asking him to be let into the on-campus weight room.

Lopiccolo’s favorite story goes back to a game called “fat bat,” a Wiffle ball game Grant would always insist on playing after the Phillies’ games were finished.

“They would play that for hours and hours and hours after the game,” Lopiccolo said. “And that’s all she wanted to play after the game — fat bat.”

Lopiccolo also saw a competitive spark from Grant’s 6-year-old season.

“She held her own, and she got along with everybody,” Lopiccolo said. “And the same competitor. … She just wanted to win just like everyone else.”