Baseball Phenom Does the Unthinkable: Hits 2 Grand Slams in the Same Inning
Consider how unlikely it is that a baseball player comes up twice in the same inning. To do so, his team needs to get so many runners on base that they bat completely around the order.
Now consider how infrequently a player bats in a situation where the bases are loaded. According to Retrosheet, only about 2% to 3% of plate appearances in 90 years of MLB history between 1921 and 2010 involved the bases loaded.
Combining the first and second situations, not only must a team bat around, but it must send at least 13 guys to the plate for a player to come up with the bases loaded twice.
On top of this, consider how infrequently players hit home runs in any situation, bases loaded or otherwise — in MLB in 2018, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Muncy led the league in fewest at-bats per home run, homering once per 11.7 at bats.
So doing the math, we multiply the chance of a team sending 13 guys to the plate in an inning times the chances of the bases being loaded times the chance of hitting a home run and we get a net result of so ridiculously high a number-to-1 against that you can forget about it happening.
Well, it happened in an Arizona high school game Thursday, according to The Arizona Republic.
Ronan Kopp, a junior at Scottsdale Christian, hit two grand slams in the same inning as his team beat Veritas Prep of Phoenix 30-0.
Just to make things even crazier, Kopp had a third chance to hit a grand slam in the same inning, but in that situation, he drew a walk. While The Republic’s report doesn’t say so explicitly, one has to wonder if the Veritas pitcher wasn’t about to give Kopp a pitch to hit for slam No. 3 and was more than happy to give up one run rather than four.
Kopp is a 6-foot-5, 200-pound big-league body in a high school kid, and he has already committed to pitch at Arizona State University.
Congratulations to Ronan Kopp committing to @ASU_Baseball pic.twitter.com/CyVU5lTIN7
— X2 A t h l e t i c s (@X2Athletics) December 1, 2018
Kopp plays first base when he isn’t pitching, and there’s even speculation that he might want to develop himself into a Shohei Ohtani-esque pitcher and position player in one roster spot.
His coach knows a thing or two about major-league talent; Scottsdale Christian is coached by Tim Salmon, who hit .282 with 299 home runs in MLB for the Angels from 1992 to 2006.
Of Kopp and his home runs, Salmon told The Republic, “He crushed them. He’s a talented player. Last night was a perfect storm. You saw the situation happen. I was telling guys in the dugout, ‘You better pay attention. This could be something you’ve never seen.’ Sure enough.”
Salmon said Kopp is already hitting 90 on the radar gun with his fastball and regularly throws between 86 and 88 miles per hour.
The junior is 4-0 with an 0.56 ERA, has pitched a no-hitter and has struck out 52 batters in just 25 innings for Scottsdale Christian this season. The Eagles are 13-1 and ranked No. 2 in their 2A Division in Arizona, right behind two-time defending state champion Phoenix Christian.
Oh, and Kopp is also 17-of-34 from the plate, batting .500.
“He’s got all the tools to be a fantastic hitter, too,” Salmon said. “He loves hitting.”
Ronan’s dad, Tom Kopp, reinforced the Ohtani-like ambitions of his son.
“We had a conversation with (ASU head coach Tracy Smith) about Ronan wanting to bat and pitch,” he said.
For now, however, the perfect storm of coming to bat twice with the bases loaded, getting two good pitches to hit and mashing them both over the fence has finally come to the old ballgame.
No matter what else he does in his baseball career at any level, Ronan Kopp made history this week.
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