Baylor Player Hits 3 Grand Slams in Season Opener

Tyce Armstrong turned Friday night into a history lesson that baseball fans won't soon forget.

During Baylor's season opener against New Mexico State at Baylor Ballpark in Waco, Texas, the first baseman hit three grand slams in one game. That's 12 runs batted in before the night was over, and a place in the record books alongside just one other college player who'd ever done it before.

The last college player to hit three grand slams in a game was Louisville's Jim LaFountain, who achieved the feat back in 1976. That was 50 years ago, when Armstrong was decades away from being born.

Armstrong, a redshirt senior from Magnolia, Texas, started his historic night in the third inning with a 401-foot blast that pushed Baylor's lead from 1-0 to a comfortable 5-0. An inning later, he went even bigger with a 407-foot grand slam that had the crowd on its feet.

After striking out in the sixth inning, Armstrong got another chance in the seventh with the bases loaded. With Baylor already cruising 11-2, he turned on a high, outside pitch and sent his third grand slam soaring into the Texas night.

The slam put Baylor up by more than 10 runs through seven innings, triggering the mercy rule and ending the game at 15-2. Armstrong walked off the field having done something that's never happened in Major League Baseball.

Why This Inspires: To understand just how rare Armstrong's achievement is, consider this: only 13 Major League players have ever hit two grand slams in the same game. The last time it happened was in 2009, when Josh Willingham did it for the Washington Nationals.

Armstrong spent years working toward this moment as a redshirt senior, showing that persistence and dedication can lead to extraordinary results. His journey reminds us that sometimes the biggest achievements come when we've put in the time and stayed committed to our goals.

The perfect ending? Because Armstrong's final slam triggered the run rule, he literally ended the game with his record-tying heroics.