Print |
E-mail to a friend
SPORTS
Ky. softball player hits 2 grand slams in 1 game
HUNTINGTON -- Youth softball player Darien Billings, of Worthington, Ky., in Greenup County, put her name in the record book on June 6.
Billings was playing for a Championship Fastpitch Under-16 team from Ashland at the Independent Softball Association-sanctioned Battle Under the Bridge tournament in Buffalo, W.Va., when she hit two grand slam home runs in the same game.
Research of softball websites and a conversation with the American Softball Association determined that University of Washington player Taylor Smith was the only other player on record to accomplish that feat. Smith had two grand slams in a March 21 game against Purdue.
Only 13 players in Major League Baseball history have done it.
Both times Billings appeared at bat with the bases loaded, she hit the ball out of the park.
The first one cleared the center-field fence with 15 feet to spare.
In her next at bat, Billings faced a new pitcher. She was thinking they might intentionally walk her with the bases loaded, but Billings hit the third pitch over the left-center field fence for her second grand slam.
And this time she stood at the plate and watched the ball sail out of the park.
As a sophomore at Raceland High School she hit .357 with four homers and 36 RBI, earning her all-district and all-area honors.
Her family moved from Louisiana to the Tri-State following Hurricane Katrina.
