Sports fans, meet Caleb Pendleton. We already mentioned him in The Mourning After, but I think he deserves his own story.
Pendleton is a freshman catcher of Florida Atlantic University. According to his FAU sports bio this Florida man was a top-ranked catching prospect in high school and “enjoys skimboarding,” “loves Olive Garden” and, to the surprise of “most people,” he can backflip. But that’s probably not why you’re reading this.
Last night, the true freshman launched back to back grand slams in the second inning against University of Central Florida. Oh, and those homers happened in his first two collegiate at bats. Why don’t we add that stat to the list of fun facts?
If you don’t know Caleb Pendleton’s name now, you probably will after watching this video.
“It’s all downhill from here,” the commentator said after the second grand slam. “Caleb Pendleton can’t do any more.” And, well, he didn’t do much more from the batter’s box after the two homers. In his next three at bats, Pendleton hit two fly outs and struck out. But the FAU Owls ended up winning the game 20-15, those eight runs from the freshmen phenom came in handy.
As impressive and rare as it may be, this is not the first time we’ve seen a ballplayer hit back to back slams in the same inning. In April 1999, three years before Pendleton was born, Fernando Tatis Sr. hit two consecutive grand slams in the third inning at Dodger Stadium.
“I never thought I’d be going up for my third at-bat with two grand slams already,” he continued. “That was pretty cool.”
He described the historic night as “nothing I could ever dream of.”
The FAU Owls will finish out their three-game series with the UCF Golden Knights this afternoon.